Birthright
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: Xander Harris his birth hidden from those that could love him taken by those who would try to corrupt him. What happens when he, the Scoobies and his real family learn the truth?
1. Chapter 1

_**Birthright**_

**Authors Note: This story is a reposting and continuation of MarcD's fic Birthright available on twisting the hellmouth. Marc has been kind enough to let me adopt the idea and run with it as I felt the idea had far too much potential to just be left hanging with one chapter in the way it was since its original publishing back in 2005. The first chapter of this story is almost direct reposting of the original with a few small tweaks made here and there but after this chapter its all me.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and make no profit from their use. Charmed and Buffy remain the properties of their respective creators.**

* * *

_**Chapter One**_

They say that there are days you will never forget. Be it that those reasons are for good or ill, that statement has a profound truth to it. Today, for a small group of people, would most certainly be one of those days. However, for good or ill, still remains to be seen.

All Saturdays should be like this. It was warm, but not exceedingly so, for San Francisco. The sun was shining and barely a cloud could be seen in the mid morning sky.

A family of sisters, very special sisters, sat in their den of the manor in which they all reside. The eldest sister, holding her young infant son, revelled in the calm atmosphere currently permeating the manor. Such calm was only intruded upon by the occasional conversation from her sisters, and the occasional cooing of her child. Yes, all Saturdays should be so glorious. However, rarely do they last.

Piper had just placed a sleeping Wyatt into his playpen, and went to rejoin her sisters. A content smile could be seen on her face, a smile that widened for a moment as the sign of a whitelighter appearing could be seen. It was a smile that quickly vanished when she took in the slumped form on the floor. The deadly shaft of a darklighters crossbow bolt could be seen protruding from the man's shoulder.

Her entire world spun on her for a moment, as she momentarily believed she was looking at her Leo, mentally flashing back to a few years ago when Leo had been shot and nearly killed by a high ranking darklighter named Alec who was stalking a charge of his professing to love her. The moment she realized that the figure slumped on the floor was not Leo; she suddenly remembered the long lost art of breathing.

Phoebe was already moving to the prone form on the ground. It was a man she had seen on a few occasions, but it was Paige's screech of "Dad!" that really got her moving.

Sam Wilder, whitelighter to their mother and father to Paige Mathews, lay writhing and whimpering in agony as the poison from the arrowhead worked its way into his system. If it wasn't removed and the wound healed soon then Sam would die again and this time and the last thing Phoebe or Piper wanted was for Paige to suffer the emotional anguish of loosing the only parent she had left alive so to speak as like all whitelighters Sam was technically already dead.

"Sorry Sam this is going to hurt," Phoebe warned before snapping the tip off the arrow and drawing it quickly but carefully out of the wound, wincing as doing so prompted a scream of pain from Sam's lips.

A cry that shook Piper out of the fugue state that had sunken upon her and roused her into action. "Leo," she yelled at the top of her lungs hoping that her husband would be able to come and wouldn't be stuck in some bigwig Elder meeting. If he was they would have to hope that Chris would be able to help Sam and she still didn't quite trust the dark haired, green-eyed whitelighter from the future as she got the distinct impression that there was something Chris wasn't telling them about the future he'd come from. Relief filled her when Leo materialised immediately in a flurry of orbs.

"Piper what's wrong," Leo asked having rushed down the moment he'd heard the urgency in his wife's cry. Fearing that something was wrong either with Piper or the baby he'd orbed down in record time. Rather than answer Piper just pointed, Leo followed her gesture and his eyes widened as he saw Sam's condition before he darted over, squatted down and immediately began working to heal the other whitelighter.

_And this day was going so well,_ Piper thought as she watched her husband work to save the life of the other whitelighter. After a moment she looked away and her eyes widened as the blue force field that protected Wyatt from harm sprang into existence around the playpen. Less than a moment before a flurry of dark orbs appeared in the room and coalesced into a darklighter who blinked then immediately trained his crossbow on Leo a look of glee at the prospect of killing one of the Elders appearing on his face.

"Oh no you don't no killing in my house," Piper snapped at the darklighter before striking out at him with her molecular combustion power. The darklighter screamed in a combination of rage and pain before exploding into a plume of black dust as her power literally tore him apart instead of simply shattering him into orbs which he would have had no difficulty recovering from.

With the darklighter vanquished in the same way she'd vanquished other evil beings over the last few years Piper noted with relief that the force field around the still sleeping Wyatt had vanished which meant no more would be coming before turning her attention back to Sam and Leo. Just in time to see the golden white glow of Leo's healing powers fade as he finished repairing the damage done to Sam's body. However instead of relaxing Sam continued sobbing clearly gripped by some emotional as opposed to physical anguish.

Piper exchanged a worried look with Leo and Phoebe who both shrugged in response before Phoebe moved aside to allow Paige to approach the man who was still such a large enigma to her. Sam Wilder was her biological father. Her birth parents had given her up, trying to shield her from a life of magic, a life filled with demons coming from the pits of hell for her blood, simply because of her bloodline and hybrid nature. It was something that she was slowly able to come to terms with. The fact that she and Sam would meet and talk on occasion was somewhat of a blessing for her. She knew, as well as most of those close to her, that she had, and probably would always have issues of abandonment and that of commitment.

Still, she was coming to terms with her faults and trying to overcome them. The few conversations she had with the man had gone a long way to heal some of those old wounds. But truth be told, there were still many, too numerous to count. But, they had time. Or so she hoped.

With a few more quick paces, she suddenly found herself kneeling by her sobbing father. It was somewhat weird that the action of pulling the hurting man into an embrace took a conscious effort, yet, once done, felt more natural than she would have ever expected. As soon as she had made contact his tears only intensified.

"Sam what is it what happened," she asked more worried than she would have thought she would have been. Glancing up into the concerned brown pools of his daughter's eyes almost made him start up again. He had been so close to another set of brown eyes; however, those he would never see again.

Silent tears streamed down his face as he was forced to look away from the intense and concerned gaze of his only daughter. Another sob was released as he tried to speak. It took a few calming breaths, and it was barely a whisper, but he managed to respond.

"He's dead. I couldn't save him. He's dead and it's my fault, all my fault." He glanced back up, not sure what he was expecting to see. There was now confusion in those brown eyes of his daughter. But the concern was still there, as was the worry and more than just a little curiosity.

"Who Sam who died?"

The world seemed to fade away. The only two occupants to currently exist in Sam's mind were that of himself and his daughter. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to hold back the tears as he reflected on what he just witnessed not more than a few scant moments ago. He looked down as if ashamed of himself. His voice was barely audible, but to all those in the room, it sounded as if man had shouted the answer as if blasted through with a megaphone.

Not a breath could be heard, or a heartbeat felt as he spoke aloud the two words that would change the lives of everyone present. The pain of loss could clearly be heard laced in with the words that no one was expecting. Opening his eyes, trying to convey the sorrow and guilt as he breathed the words, he replied "Your brother."

Paige was stunned, and she wasn't the only one. The fact that the day had started out so well should have been a clue that a whopper was coming her way. But this was a bit much.

Her father had almost died, right in front of her eyes. How he had managed to make it to the manor with a darklighters arrow in him just about floored her. She had felt a surge of relief as she watched Leo heal the man she currently still held in her embrace. She could vaguely recall the entrance of a darklighter, but her sister, well, her half-sister, had taken care of him with no problem.

It almost seemed as if her father was inconsolable. She had no clue what could have caused such a reaction in such a man, and she was shocked, and more than a little taken aback by his reason.

For one thing, she had asked him about exactly that subject; one of the first things she had asked him when they started having periodic 'chats' was if she had any other family out there. He had been quite adamant that she had no other brothers or sisters, half or otherwise, besides the sisters she currently knew and lived with. She found it unbelievable that he would lie to her like that. That thought alone was enough to get her blood to begin to boil.

However, the situation they were currently embroiled in caught up to her, and the pain in his eyes was more than enough to quench whatever anger had begun to creep into her system. The man was suffering more at this moment that she would ever wish on anyone, enemy or friend. This was something that they would talk about, but now was clearly not the time.

Then there was the fact that she had a brother. Was he a full blood relative? Maybe even a twin? She couldn't imagine him fathering any other children after what had happened between him and her mother. Her eyes lit up for a moment at the thought of a sibling, a full-fledged sibling. Now she loved her sisters with all of her heart and soul. There was nothing they wouldn't do for her or her for them.

However, no matter how hard she tried to suppress it, the fact that they were only half-sisters was something that ate away at her. A minor nit-picky thing, true, but it was there nonetheless. The idea that there was someone that she could call brother, and never need to place a 'half' in with, brought a surge of emotion she never knew she could feel. It was a sense of longing that made part of her less incomplete.

That sense seemed to lift her spirits for a moment, just knowing that there really was someone out there that could fill that void. However, the tense of musings brought her crashing back down to the here and now.

There 'was' someone like that. However, there was no more. _He's dead._ That thought, what Sam had said just moments before, abruptly brought her crashing back down to earth and a profound sense of mourning swept over her. It was weird to mourn someone that you had never met; someone that you never even knew existed until after their passing. Was it really him that she was mourning, or was it what he represented? How could it be a man that she knew nothing about? She had faced loss in the past. She had lost loved ones; she had lost her parents at a young age.

Yet there seemed to be a connection that she never knew she had; something that she had only become aware of being severed. It had been so natural that she had never even realized it was there. Hell, until this instant she never really knew it had been severed.

Though, with her trying to reconcile what her mind was trying to conjure, a lack of _something_ brought a whole new feeling of loss. Was it a connection? She had heard it said on more than one occasion that twins had a connection that couldn't be explained. What would that mean for twins with a mystical background? How could she have never noticed it before? Or perhaps she had suddenly imagined all of this. May the Goddess help her she wasn't sure if she wanted to be imagining all of this.

"Sam."

The sound of Phoebe's voice shocked Paige out of the daze that she'd begun to settle into and she looked up to see everyone seemed to be as confused as she was. She forced herself to pay attention as Phoebe continued to speak.

"Who's her brother? I didn't know she had any." Sam made no move to remove himself from the comfort his daughter was providing as he pulled himself together.

"His name is Alexander, he's Paige's twin brother." He could feel the hitch in Paige's breathing, but decided to continue nonetheless. "And until just a short while ago, I never even knew he existed."

* * *

**A Few Minutes Later**

Silence ruled in the kitchen of the Halliwell manor where everyone had relocated to from the living room. Everyone was waiting for Sam to elaborate on the bombshell he'd dropped on them a few minutes ago. Piper, holding baby Wyatt, sat at the kitchen table with Sam sitting next to Paige, Leo sitting next to Piper, and Phoebe sitting in between her two sisters. Chris, who had orbed in not too long ago and been quickly brought up to speed on what had happened, stood leaning against the counter off just to the side.

All eyes were on Sam, who was currently staring into a steaming cup of coffee that Piper had placed in front of him. The only one who didn't seem to have his full attention on the older whitelighter was Leo, who occasionally shot suspicious glances at Chris when he thought no one was looking as like his wife there was something about Chris that he didn't trust of course the fact that Chris had more or less manoeuvred him into his current position as an Elder after the release of the Titans, and thus not able to give his family the time he would have liked, didn't help matters.

Finally the silence was broken.

"I don't even know where to start." Now all eyes were on Sam who looked over to his daughter. "As I've said before, giving you up was by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do." He shook his head. "I just can't believe she did this to me."

"Who and what did she do?"

He glanced up at Leo, who had voiced the question. "You know who Angela Connors is, right?"

Leo nodded his head. "Of course, she's one of the few Elders who survived the Titans being released." A quick glance in Chris's direction was not missed by anyone.

"Yes well her becoming an Elder only happened about a decade ago. At the time, I considered her one of my closest friends" he shook his head "it was her that I trusted to make sure my children would be safe." Sam's hand tightened around the coffee mug for a short moment before he was able to reign in his anger. "She betrayed me."

He looked up from his coffee. No one knew quite what to say in response to his comment. The curiosity could almost be felt in waves. Leo, while still curious, held a small amount of scepticism, nonetheless. Not that Sam could blame him. Had the woman not come forward and told him the truth, he never would have believed it either.

"At the time, she didn't really see it as betraying me. She was trying to protect me, and my son." If at all possible, the level of curiosity in the room seemed to double in intensity, and Leo's eyes lit up with understanding, as he cast a glance at his sleeping son.

Shaking his head, Leo spoke up. "There's a reason why whitelighters are forbidden from getting involved with their charges," all eyes suddenly rested on him, "we have our own oracles, those that can see into the future. It was prophesized a long time ago that a male born of both witch and whitelighter would herald a new age." Everyone glanced down at the sleeping baby, a thoughtful and worried expression crossed Chris's face which he quickly schooled to impassivity. "Though what sort of age would come forth was too clouded to see. Only one oracle was able to breach the mist and he died shortly thereafter. Because of that, it is widely believed that it will lead to dark times."

Piper looked visibly shaken. "Is Wyatt…is he…will they come after him?"

Leo softly shook his head. "No, we're fortunate enough to have some good people backing us. There has been some worry, but I don't think any of the Elders would try anything. The act alone, of harming an innocent, and Wyatt is innocent, goes against all of their beliefs."

Sam shook his head. "If they were going to do anything, it would have been before he was born, or the moment after. Truth be told, I believe that had Angela not acted as she had, and the Elders had become aware of his existence, he may have been in great danger from all sides."

"Having a witch that's part whitelighter gives the Elders cause for concern; especially if they come from the Warren line." All eyes went to Chris who decided to make his presence known.

Paige looked around in confusion. "Why?"

Chris, Leo, and Sam all exchanged a glance before shrugging. Leo was the one to answer. "Well, the mystical side of your family – the Warren line – is passed down, in the case of you three, from your mother" he looked over at Paige. "While their father is completely mortal, with no magic to pass down, you have the core of a whitelighter backing up that of the Warren line."

The three sisters looked at each other. "What does that mean?" Paige asked, and Piper and Phoebe nodded their head with their sister's question.

Leo sighed. "What it means is that once the time has come, and you have gone as far as you can with your powers, individually, you will most likely be the most powerful in the group." A thoughtful expression crossed Leo's face before he shrugged. "Though, truth be told, you may never stop growing in your powers. It seems that all the normal rules of magic go out the window where The Charmed Ones are concerned." This brought a smile to most of the faces at the table.

"That is another thing," Sam said drawing all eyes back to him. "The Charmed Ones were always prophesized to be three females. That is where your true power lies. As powerful as you may all become individually, it is the power of three that makes you The Charmed Ones. And that is something that Alexander would never be able to be part of. At least, not to the extent that you three can."

The three sisters looked at each other in confusion, before Leo picked up the conversation. "He's right. Normally another witch, especially a male one would not have much to contribute to a power of three spell, at least not where two of the other witches were from your line. Sure they could lend some of their magic, but it wouldn't contain anywhere near the power that you three share."

Glancing at Paige he continued. "Though, in Alexander's case, it may be slightly different. His connection with you, as a twin, and his mystical connection that would come with it, would help in powering a spell, as would his link shared by all of you, through his mother."

All three sisters looked down at the table, a sad expression on their faces at the mention of their deceased mother, even Paige, who never really knew the woman, would feel a sense loss when she was mentioned. Piper, having known her mother the longest, couldn't help but to pull her child in closer.

Chris's voice broke them all from their thoughts. "What exactly did your friend do?" he asked.

Sam sighed. "She knew what would happen if the Elders found out, so she quickly cast a spell of her own over him, shielding him from them at the moment he was born. I never even got a chance to hold him; his birth was a complete surprise to all of us, since we had never even considered that there might be more than one baby." He gave a slight smile. "It actually was fast work on her part."

His smile vanished then, and his eyes darkened slightly. "She told me she knew how much trouble this would cause," he continued looking over at his daughter. "Your brother is just a few minutes older than you. Shortly after you were born, she used whitelighter dust on all of us" he shook his head "having had my wings clipped, I was vulnerable to its magic. She made it so that we only remembered delivering you."

Paige, of her own accord, reached out to grasp her father's hand. This seemed to calm him down a small bit, and he continued with his tale.

"It was only a few weeks ago when she cast a memory spell on me, allowing me to remember what she did. She had told me that she had planned on separating the two of you, and placing him in the care of an orphanage similar to where you were placed. She was personally going to watch over him." He stopped for a moment. Taking a sip of his coffee, he attempted to reign in his emotions. As upset as he was, it would serve no real purpose to allow his anger to cloud his story.

"Before she was able to place him, The Source himself intercepted her. She barely escaped, and was unsure of what to do, afterwards. It seemed that The Seer had foretold of Alexander's birth, and that he personally would ambush her. And it worked. She barely got away with her life, and he was able to take Alexander."

Worried glances shot across the room. With all the talk about what a whitelighter/witch hybrid might be capable of, the thought of one being influenced by malevolent power of The Source didn't bode well for any of their imaginations. Add that to the prophecy foretold by The Elders' own Oracles, and no good could have come of this.

Sam, on the other hand didn't seem to notice any of this. In fact, if they didn't know any better, they would swear he was smiling.

"That bastard wanted to warp him. Make him dark and evil" he actually snorted with amusement "That Bastard never stood a chance."

Before anyone could question what he was talking about he continued. "Spell after spell was thrown at the child, but nothing that The Source, or his minions, could do seemed to have any effect on turning the baby towards an evil disposition," he looked up with a proud smile on his face "I'm told that it almost drove The Source mad, that for two full years anything and everything they tried just seemed to be absorbed by Alexander, and cleansed as soon as it went into him."

Paige's breath hitched. "So they killed him?"

Sam shook his head. "No, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm actually glad that The Source was as patient and intelligent as he was" he sighed "when it became clear that the odd spell wasn't going to work, they moved him from the underworld to a place where evil permeated the very air the people breathe." He looked straight at Leo who paled as he realised what Sam was getting at.

"You don't mean…" he started to say his voice trailing off in horror.

"Yes Leo I do. They took him to Sunnydale."

"The Hellmouth Oh My God he wouldn't have stood a chance," Chris exclaimed prompting the sisters to look at him and see the sick and horrified expression on his face. Exchanging looks of mounting concern the sisters turned to Leo to explain what exactly a Hellmouth was and why it was such a bad thing to be around.

"The Hellmouth is sort of what it sounds like. It's a fissure or tear in the dimensional barriers that separates our dimension from a number of different hell dimensions," he explained looking around the table to make sure that everyone was paying attention to what he was saying. "And they really are hell, not the underworld which is kind of a halfway house a holding area between our world and the various hell dimensions. The energy that the tear gives off is so dark that it can even have an effect on normal people. To have a child, a whitelighter no less, soaking up that sort of energy, I don't know if he'd survive, let alone stay on the side of light."

The girls, especially Paige, looked crushed. Interestingly enough, Chris was looking about the same as Paige.

"But he did."

That simple statement brought everyone's sharp gaze over to a smiling Sam. If it were at all possible, that smile seemed to brighten up the room, even Paige couldn't help but smile in response.

"He soaked it all up, and just like the spells, it couldn't touch him. He just made it part of him, clean and pure like the rest," Sam explained looking proud.

"How do you know all of this?" Sam sent a soft smile at Piper, who had asked the question.

"When Angela told me what happened, she also informed me of the small sect of demons that The Source had put in charge of watching over young Alexander, since he had to take his place in the underworld and could not watch first hand their success." Sam's voice took on a hard edge as he continued.

"I tracked down one of those bastards and got him to tell me every little piece of information he knew." Sam couldn't help but think to himself, _or so I thought_.

"How did you do that?"

He sent a soft smile at his daughter, before locking gazes with Leo. After a brief nod, it was clear that Leo understood what had transpired. After all, the man would do no less for his own baby boy.

"You don't want to know."

After that comment and the expression that accompanied it, they let it go.

"What did The Source decide to do once they realized that using The Hellmouth wasn't working for them?" Everyone looked at Phoebe as she asked a question that was on all of their minds. Once again, Sam's eyes became cold and dark. His voice had a hard edge as he answered her question.

"Since they figured that magic wouldn't work, Alexander was brought back before The Source, who himself bound the child's powers." The three sisters shared a brief look, all three having had their powers bound until they became witches, and for Paige, not until she finally met her half-sisters after the death of Prue. "After that was done, they brought him back to Sunnydale and placed him in a home," he practically spat that last part letting everyone know that the _home_ he was talking about was anything but a safe and nurturing place.

"The Source figured that if they couldn't corrupt him magically they would do it emotionally and psychologically," he shook his head as Paige placed a hand over her mouth as the implications became clear to the former social worker. "They put him into a home with alcoholic parents who were either neglectful, emotionally and even physically abusive depending on the day."

He had to stop as he reigned in his anger at what his own son had been put through. It had taken almost more willpower than he had possessed to not end the demon's existence at that point in the story.

"They wanted Alexander to hate humanity," he continued after a moment. "With examples like 'his parents,' it wouldn't have been too hard to do, but even that didn't work."

"How," all three sisters and Chris asked at the same time.

"He latched on to a couple of friends a boy Jesse McNally and a girl Willow Rosenberg," a small smile crept onto Sam's face "he never considered his parents, well parents, only people who he happened to share a roof with but he considered his friends closer to what family should be than anything else. He latched onto them."

"I take it that The Source didn't like that."

Sam snorted at Piper's observation.

"No, but like I said, he's a patient bastard," he shook his head. "He let the relationship grow for over a decade before trying to take them away. He hoped to use the grief and pain to mould Alexander into a true force of evil" Sam had a far away look in his eyes "it almost worked, too."

It was Paige's sad voice that broke through the brief silence. "He lost his friends?"

Sam sent another soft smile at his daughter as he shook his head negatively. "No, he only lost one friend. A master vampire and his minions were tasked with separating and bringing his friends out to someplace private, where they would be turned and used to taunt him. It almost worked but there was one thing that The Source didn't account for which doomed that plan."

"Which was," Chris asked as he came to stand behind his unknowing father all his concentration and attention focused on the grieving father reminiscing about his son. Sam gave a small smirk up at the whitelighter from the future.

"The Slayer came to Sunnydale," he answered.

"Ah." Both Leo and Chris nodded their heads in agreement, small smiles on their own faces as they guessed how that would have put one hell of a crimp in The Source's plans for Alexander.

"What's a Slayer?" Piper asked getting concurring nods from Phoebe and Paige who were equally curious about whoever this Slayer was.

"The Slayer is a girl whose been mystically empowered with the strength, speed, fighting skill to combat vampires and some of the more physical combat orientated demonic races," Chris explained, "into each generation one is born and when one dies another immediately takes her place."

"The Elders don't really have much if anything to do with the Slayer," Leo added, "she falls under the authority of another group who refer to themselves as the Powers That Be." _The Pricks That Be more like, them and their ridiculous idea of balance,_ he thought with a mental snort.

The girls looked at each other and unanimously decided to see if they could find more information about The Slayer in The Book of Shadows. If they could find anything to help a fellow chosen, then they would do so. Besides, from the sounds of it, one may have helped their brother/half-brother, and if that wasn't motivation to help, then nothing would ever be. Plus they were also curious about these Powers That Be and hadn't missed the slight derision they'd heard in Leo's voice when he mentioned them. Their musings were cut short by Sam's voice bringing them back to the discussion at hand.

"He befriended her just shortly before the vampires made their move. She was able to help him, but he did lose one of his friends. Jesse was turned and later staked," he shook his head "the demon I 'interrogated' was a shapeshifter who told me that Alexander was the one to dust the vampire inhabiting his friend's body, but I'm not sure if I believed him. Either way, the effect it had on him was not what The Source had in mind."

No one was quite sure how to react. To learn that the young man may have had to kill the body of his own friend weighed against what knowledge they may gain in how this affected Alexander.

"Instead of taking it out on the world, Alexander found his outlet." A large smile, one of profound pride, spread across the face of the whitelighter. "He focused his grief and rage into a new purpose: he joined The Slayer in her fight against the darkness, and helped to protect her, Willow and the other residents of the town."

Everyone was smiling, but it was Phoebe who spoke what was going through the sister's minds. "Well, what did we expect; he is a Halliwell after all."

After a few quick chuckles, Piper decided to speak up. "What did The Source do after that?"

Sam sighed once again, and a look of profound sadness could be seen in his eyes. "Again, he is a patient one; he really didn't mind sacrificing a few demons here and there on a Hellmouth if it was possible to give him the outcome he was looking for. What he did do and something that the bastard demon I had interrogated never told me was that he got a spy in their ranks," he shook his head before continuing. "He was forced to wait a few years, but when the opportunity came, he was able make his move and place a spy in their midst."

Leo was almost reticent to ask, but decided to anyways. "Who was it?"

"It was a demon, well, ex-demon, known as Anya Jenkins though when she was a demon, she was known as Anyanka Patron Saint of Scorned Women."

"Lord D'Hoffryn's finest vengeance demon; how was she able to gain their trust?" Leo asked.

Sam actually snorted. "She lost her power centre when she granted a wish against Alexander, I'm not quite sure of the details, but apparently, The Source himself sought her out, and made a deal with her after D'Hoffryn refused to replace the power centre. She would worm her way into the group, and he would grant her demonic powers, and when she completed her 'assignment,' she would sit by his side in the underworld." Sam held up his hand to stave off Leo's reply. Obviously Leo knew who she was and was having a hard time believing that she would be able to 'worm her way into the group.' Not that he could blame him if he hadn't seen her act firsthand he would have been thinking the exact same thing.

"Leo, she was brilliant. She went to him in a time when he was basically alone as the Slayer – a Buffy Summers – and Willow were both starting in college and couldn't spend any real time with him they apparently just clicked." Though the truth be told he had a feeling on just why they clicked and if it wasn't something mystical, he was betting on sex. "And with the front she put up, being more tactless than you could possibly believe, it was easy to see how they believed that she wouldn't have been able to keep such a secret from them, even if they had been looking. And remember, none of them knew to look. It sounded more like his friends simply tolerated her, and not embrace her like he did."

"I guess it's a good thing that we took out The Source," Phoebe commented Sam shook his head.

"True, but they don't know that that The Source was vanquished. The demons in charge of watching over him wait for his messengers or orders and Anyanka won't be in contact with him until he calls for her. So, as far as they were concerned, it was business as usual."

Sam stopped talking as he looked into his cooling beverage. How could he have been so blind? He'd been around for longer than any of them could have guessed. It was such a rookie mistake to make. Though, in truth he had other things to concentrate on, such as approaching his son after having taken care of the demons watching over them. He had been so intent on that meeting, that he had never seen her coming.

"I didn't see her as the threat she was, and because of it, Alexander died," he paused for a moment trying, unsuccessfully, from keeping his eyes from tearing. "She knew what I was, perhaps even who I was, and the moment I started talking to him, she knew it was all over. I don't remember her moving, but I'll always remember the energy ball colliding with, and ripping my son apart. I remember going into a rage and trying to kill her as she simply laughed and shimmered away, a few darklighters took her place."

It was true. The conversation had barely started when Anyanka decided to strike. This is what The Source had ordered her to do, should the need ever arise, and when she did her job, she did it well. The result of her actions was something that would be engraved into his mind for the rest of eternity. The haunting sight of Anyanka's energy ball ripping Alexander to shreds; the smell of his flesh burning; his screams of agony while his eyes seemed to show both absolute pain and betrayal as Alexander had taken in just who his attacker was; yes, all of that would forever be burned into Sam's mind. He knew one thing from that moment forward. If it took his dying breath, Anyanka would pay, and she would pay dearly.

Paige placed her hand over his; however, he was so far gone in the memories from not so long ago, if it had any affect on him, she couldn't tell.

"I don't remember how many of them I vanquished before one got me with a lucky shot. I barely remember orbing to the manor, and from there on out, you know the rest." Paige squeezed his hand and he returned the gesture before continuing.

"Now, because of my own stupidity, I'll never get the chance to really know my own son," he looked sadly at Paige. "And you won't get a change to meet and get to know your brother," looking around the table, he amended "all of you won't get to know your brother." He looked back at Paige before bringing his eyes to rest on their still-clasped hands. "I'm so sorry that none of you will ever get the chance to meet him."

Silence permeated the kitchen for a few moments before Chris's voice cut through the silence. "Um, that may not be necessarily true."

All eyes rested on the mysterious whitelighter from the future. Chris was actually smiling at the group. To him, this was perfect. This man, Alexander, his uncle, had been cast with the same predicament that Wyatt seemingly fell into. If anyone could help to keep Wyatt on the path of light, it sounded like this was the man. It was true that this was the first he was learning about this man; however, he was finding that there was a lot about his family that he had never known.

Yes, this could help on so many levels. This would work; it had to.

For everyone's sake, it had better work.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

"There maybe away to save Alexander," Chris said breaking the silence that had fallen upon the kitchen.

"How," Sam asked looking at the mysterious dark haired whitelighter and feeling a desperate hope blossom in his chest. He could see that everyone else was giving Chris the same look of intense interest in what he had to say.

"You know I came from the future right?" Chris asked him getting a nod from Sam as the news had been all over whitelighter circles after the whole thing with the Titans went down. Nobody upstairs quite knew what to make of the whitelighter named Chris Perry as they'd never encountered a whitelighter who'd yet to be born before now. He was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and thus somewhat disconcerting to deal with.

"The spell that sent me back here wasn't a one time thing it could be used again to send one or all of us back in time to before Alexander's death," Chris explained with a smile prompting eyes to widen around the table.

"You mean we could go back and prevent it?" Phoebe asked getting a nod from him. "But wouldn't the Elders stop us travelling back?"

"If we all went then yes they probably would. They didn't stop me but then they were all dead by then," Chris admitted knowing that in his future Wyatt had deposed the Elders killing them all and most of the whitelighters as well, eliminating them as a threat to his power. Though he hadn't told the Sisters that yet or the fact that he was Leo and Piper's second born son as that would be oh so awkward. "Sending one person back would be a lot easier to slip past them."

"That's reasonable. So who should go? Sam?" Piper asked.

"No Anyanka would kill Alexander the moment she saw me just like she did before," Sam replied, "no it has to be someone who could fit in with the crowds at Sunnydale University and thus not attract her attention as while Alexander doesn't attend he's around there enough with his friends that Anyanka wouldn't think anything of him meeting someone new on or near the campus."

"I'll go," Paige said, "I'm younger than the rest of you I should be able to fit into the crowds in Sunnydale easily enough."

"Plus your twin bond with Alexander should draw him too you," Sam agreed "though you would still have to prove you are who you say you are to him though you do look somewhat like him so that should help. Plus there is the issue of his powers being bound while the binding is in place he wouldn't be able to escape or defend himself should Anyanka catch on to who and what you actually are and attempt to kill him."

"That shouldn't be too difficult as there is a reversal potion in the Book of Shadows that can remove the binding placed on someone's powers," Chris said surprising everyone that he knew that. "What?" he asked as everyone abruptly stared at him.

"How do you know there is a potion for that in the book," Phoebe asked frowning suspiciously. "I've never seen you read the Book of Shadows."

"It doesn't matter how I know I just do," Chris replied mentally kicking himself for the slip up as he had read the Book of Shadows many times while he'd been growing up at least before Wyatt had shown his true evil colours. At the looks he got back from the sisters and Leo he sighed. "Alright fine I read the Book of Shadows in the future. Where did you think I got the spell that sent me back here from? Please don't ask me to explain more as it's complicated and not relevant to saving your brother's life." _And incidentally preventing Wyatt from turning evil and enslaving or destroying the world,_ he thought to himself.

For a few moments nobody spoke. "We'll talk about what else you know from the Book later Chris," Piper said at last making Chris inwardly cringe as he knew that tone of voice and knew that he would get one hell of an interrogation later and even orbing away wouldn't stop the interrogation for long Piper would either send Paige or Leo to drag him back. "Right now though you're right it's not relevant to saving our brother. This potion to remove a binding do you know how long it would take to brew it up?"

"I'm afraid not as I've never brewed it up myself," Chris admitted, "though the potion isn't that complicated compared to others so it shouldn't take that long. The trick will be getting Alexander to drink it."

"Okay then why don't you go and get the book and show us this potion and the time travel spell," Piper instructed him.

"No problem I'll be right back," Chris replied with a grin before orbing up to the attic. Materialising he moved quickly over to the book and began flicking through the pages looking for the potion and soon finding it. Then he checked that the time travel spell was in the book as well and felt a profound relief that it was still there as he had had a nagging fear that it wouldn't be there for some reason as the book was currently quite a bit smaller than he remembered it being.

Carefully picking up the book – being sure not to loose the pages he wanted – he orbed back down to the kitchen where everyone was waiting expectantly. "Here you are," he said putting the book down on the table and pointing out the pages in question. "The time travel spell is a bit different to most in that the portal it creates doesn't stop you using your powers when you reach your destination."

"That explains why you still have your powers when you technically haven't even been born yet," Leo mused as he'd wondered how Chris was able to use his whitelighter powers as he should have been reverted to mortality upon materialising in their time. Chris nodded.

"Well that will make things easier though how far back will this portal send Paige," Phoebe asked.

"That's the one downside of this particular spell, like all good spells it seems to have a mind of its own. The portal it creates will go back as far as it needs to go in order to fulfil the intent of the caster," Chris admitted. "Which could be a few months could be a year or two there is no way to be sure. Unfortunately using it is the only way I can see to save Alexander." _And my brother and with him the future,_ he thought.

"It's the only chance we're likely to have," Piper admitted after a moment of silence. "What about returning?"

"To return to this time Paige would simply need to cast the spell again and the portal will open to the last place she cast the spell from which would naturally be here."

"It will be dangerous going to the Hellmouth," Sam cautioned worried for his daughter as he had just lost his son he didn't want to loose his daughter as well. "Sunnydale can be a very, very dangerous place in some ways going there can be as dangerous as going into the underworld."

"I'm willing to take the risk if it will let me save my brother," Paige replied firmly and felt a warm sensation inside when Sam gave her a concerned but at the same time very proud look. "I'm going and that's all there is to it."

"What about the demons the Source assigned to watch over Alexander?" Phoebe asked.

"They're not that difficult to vanquish," Sam replied. "They're all low level demons with abilities more specialised in stealth and observation than direct combat. Most of them are capable of at least invisibility and shape-shifting but the specialisation in those abilities has come at the cost of their combat capabilities none of them – bar Anyanka – are capable of flinging lethal strength energy balls. While a few do have weapons they rely more on either brute force or trickery to escape when directly confronted. A basic vanquishing potion will be more than sufficient to destroy them."

"Then we can brew up a few batches of a basic all purpose vanquishing potion alongside the reversal potion" Piper said, "that should help against any other demons you encounter on the Hellmouth besides the ones watching Alexander." Paige nodded in agreement. "Okay then are we all agreed on this course of action?" When no one raised any objections all knowing that Chris's suggestion to use this spell was the only real course of action open to them she continued. "Alright then, lets get started getting everything ready."

* * *

**Sometime Later**

Paige felt like there were rattlesnakes performing a mating dance in her stomach as she accompanied by her sisters stood in the attic of the manor. The last few hours had been hectic as they raced through the preparations to send her back in time to prevent her brother's murder at the hands of Anyanka. As Chris had indicated it hadn't really taken that long to brew the reversal potion to unbind Alexander's powers. The bulk of the time had been taken up preparing a number of potions for her use while in Sunnydale as well as her packing a suitcase to take through with her as she'd be staying at a hotel in the town for the duration of her mission.

Now at last though they were ready. On the wall nearby Chris had just finished using some chalk – purified and properly prepared for use in magic – to draw a large triquetra which when the spell was cast would contain the space-time portal. The only thing they had left to do was cast the spell that would create the portal and from what Chris had told them she would have to be the only one to cast it as the spell apparently read the mind of the caster to determine exactly how far back in time to go. Now that they were on the precipice of casting she felt as nervous – if not more so – as she had the day she went for her first job interview.

"We're ready," Chris indicated breaking the silence in the attic.

"Will it hurt going through the portal," Paige asked.

Chris shook his head. "No it will be just like stepping through a door. The actual transport through space and time does feel a little weird but its not painful or disorientating in anyway well so long as you don't mind riding roller coasters if you don't like them well it won't exactly be the most pleasant of experiences," he said with a slightly cheeky grin that she couldn't help but respond to with a smile of her own.

"Are you sure you want to do this Paige," Piper asked looking at her youngest sister in concern. "It's not too late to back out and find another way."

"I'm sure," Paige replied, "and I don't think we would be able to find another way. If we want to save our brother then I have to do this."

"Then before you go take this," Sam said breaking into the conversation and handing his daughter a piece of paper. "It's a spell one of my past charges used to use whenever she had to stay anywhere other than her home. It will keep vampires from entering your motel room once cast."

"I thought vampires needed an invitation to enter somewhere?" Phoebe commented frowning.

"That only applies to someone's home Phoebe," Leo explained. "A hotel room or motel chalet indeed anywhere that is only a place of temporary occupancy can be accessed by any breed of vampire at any time as the ward that would normally stop them cold on the threshold is either not present or is so weak that it might as well not be present at all."

"But there is a spell that can correct that which is what I just gave to Paige," Sam added. "There should be a copy in the Book of Shadows as your mother said she was going to put it in there after I told her about it."

Piper and Phoebe exchanged a look mutually deciding to check the Book of Shadows later as such a spell sounded like it would be an incredibly useful thing to have. Plus given Phoebe's skill at writing and adapting spells it was conceivable that they would be able to adapt the spell to block other demons and not just the sunlight hating, bloodsucking kind. Which would only be a good thing to apply to the manor as it would put a stop to all that shimmering in and immediately loosing energy balls thing demons were prone to doing usually at the most awkward times. Of course the trick would be adapting it in such away that it didn't block all forms of magical teleportation otherwise Leo, Chris and Paige wouldn't be able to orb in or out whenever they were needed.

"Okay enough stalling lets do this," Paige said breaking the moment of quiet and starting to move towards the Book of Shadows. Only to be stopped by Piper who promptly gave her a hug a sentiment that was echoed moments later by Phoebe, Leo and Sam.

"Be careful," Sam whispered in his daughter's ear before pulling back and letting Paige go to the book.

Paige looked at the spell and closed her eyes for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly to settle her nerves before opening her eyes again and in a clear voice speaking the words of the spell. "Hear these words. Hear the rhyme," she incanted. "Heed the hope within my mind. Send me back to where I'll find. What I wish in place and time."

As the last syllable left her lips the chalk lines of the triquetra on the far wall began to glow with a brilliant blue light. The light spread until the entire shape of the triquetra was filled with nothing but the light which pulsed and swirled slightly giving the feel that it was something immensely powerful that was being kept contained by the powerful mystical shape of the triquetra.

_It's beautiful,_ Paige thought gazing at the open time portal in amazement for a few moments before mentally shaking herself. Picking up her suitcase and handbag – which also contained the prepared vanquishing potions along with the one to unbind Alexander's powers – she walked up to the portal and paused taking a moment to look back at her family committing the image to memory before resolutely walking into the portal.

Immediately she felt herself become insubstantial almost in the same fashion she felt whenever she was orbing somewhere. Around her the portal became a glowing blue tunnel streaked through with crackling white arcs that twisted and turned in every possible way. As Chris had described travelling down the tunnel felt almost like riding a high speed roller coaster at an adventure park. For what seemed like an eternity she shot down the tunnel through the space-time continuum before a white light appeared at the end of the tunnel. In seconds she reached it…

…and suddenly she was flying through the air to land on a damp grassy surface.

"Whoa that was a rush," she muttered to herself before standing up. To find that it was night though there was enough warmth still in the air to indicate that it hadn't been dark for very long. A soft breeze filled with the scent of flowers blew across wherever she was and in the faint silver light of the three quarters full moon she could see a building nearby.

A building that was completely and utterly wrecked from what had to have been an extremely ferocious fire that had gutted huge parts of what had once been quite a grand structure. Now it was a wreck with large parts of the building actually collapsed and blackened by the inferno with debris littered all around from either fire fighters dampening down the building after putting out the blaze or by explosions during the height of the conflagration. Nearby a damaged sign indicated that the wrecked building was – or had been – Sunnydale High School.

_Who would burn down a high school,_ she wondered gazing at the shattered, scorched ruins with a thoughtful look on her face. After a few moments more studying the ruined building she started to turn away to see if she could find her way to the Sunnydale Motor Lodge where she could make her temporary home before beginning the task of finding and saving the life of her brother. She had just started walking when movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention.

Slipping into the shadows so she wouldn't be seen easily and watched as four people hurried into the ruins of the high school. Three of them were in their late teens or very early twenties while the other looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. But it was the teenage boy that really caught her attention as there was something about him that seemed familiar even though she had never seen him before this moment.

Yet in an instant she _knew_ who he was.

The teenager could only be Alexander. Deep within she felt the part of her that had been severed – even though she hadn't even known it was there – when Alexander had been torn apart by Anyanka's energy ball reform as she sensed Alexander's presence. Somehow though his powers were bound the magic within his soul reached out for hers through the bond they shared as twins. It was strange but wonderful and she couldn't believe that she'd found Alexander so soon. The only explanation that she could think of for it was simply their magic – the spell had done exactly what Chris had said it would do and taken her back in time to save her brother, though it had obviously moved her quite away back in time as Alexander – from the brief glance anyway – looked to be three or four years younger than her and not the couple of minutes older that he was supposed to be. Clearly she had a few hurdles still to overcome if she was to save him as the spell wouldn't have sent her this far back without a very good reason.

After a few moments more thought she decided that now was as good a time as any to introduce herself to them, at least part of the way as explaining she was Alexander's long lost twin sister from the future and that Alexander was a witch/whitelighter hybrid would take awhile and would be better carried out elsewhere else than a burned out high school. Carefully she started to follow pausing when she noticed another man in his late teens early twenties dressed in what looked like somekind of battle dress and carrying a strange looking weapon head into the shattered building as well. He showed no sign of having seen her as he disappeared into the structure and she let out the breath she hadn't even realised she was holding, before resuming her own journey into the building.

* * *

Whistler frowned in puzzlement as – concealed from behind an invisibility spell – he watched the blond haired young woman follow the self styled Scooby gang into the ruins of Sunnydale High School. He had absolutely no idea who she was only that she was very powerful magically as he'd spotted her emerging from a space-time rift that had literally wreaked of Wicca magic specifically the kind of Wicca magic that only a very powerful born witch could wield. Nor did he have any idea where she'd come from as there were no natural born witches with anywhere near the kind of power she'd have used to create the rift as only a very old witch line would have the magical strength necessary for it and no line that old came near the Hellmouth instinctively repelled by its tainted magic emissions.

One thing was clear though she had an interest in the Scoobies and in particular in Alexander Harris the one who hadn't gotten many brownie points with his bosses as he'd – unknowingly – mucked up quite a few of their plans and prophecies over the last few years. Quite why she was interested in him though he had no idea though it was concerning that she was as a witch of her power level always had a whitelighter close by. And the very last thing the Powers would want was one of those poking their noses around the Scoobies especially around the witch practitioner Willow Rosenberg as they had big plans for her plans that would be under serious threat if the Elders were to become aware of her as they certainly would as any whitelighter worth his or her salt would immediately sense just how powerful, and how undisciplined in magic, she was and immediately act to rectify the situation either by instruction or if Rosenberg didn't listen by stripping her powers from her.

So curious and concerned in equal measure he began following.

* * *

_What a mess,_ Paige thought as she made her way through the burned out shell of the high school. All around the floor was littered with debris from the ceiling and walls. Lockers, twisted and warped by the intense heat of the inferno, were strewn everywhere a few having come up spreading their scorched contents everywhere. The air inside the building was still and still stunk of fire even though it was quite obvious that the fire had been extinguished long ago.

For what seemed like an eternity she wandered down the maze of hallways passing burned out and shattered classroom after classroom. Before at one point stumbling as she stepped on something that didn't feel like rubble and nearly fell. Glancing down she shuddered in revulsion as she saw that it was a chunk of flesh the size of a toaster barbequed to a crisp in the blaze. Yet it was clearly not human flesh as she could see in the half carbonised skin a distinct pattern of scales just like those you would find on a snake but bigger much bigger as each scale looked to be half the size of her hand. _Yeech what was that part of,_ she thought feeling sick at the very sight of it before the sound of fighting coming from somewhere off to the right caught her attention.

Looking up she hurried in that direction wondering just what her brother had gone and gotten himself into. She came upon a broken wall into what had probably once been the schools library as it was far too small to be the canteen or gym right now though it like the rest of the building was a shattered, burned out wreck with debris everywhere and a large and very ominous hole in the floor.

It was also the scene of a battle.

The five people she'd seen entering the building were engaged in combat against three demons that she'd never seen before. Demons who seemed determined to dive into the crack in the floor with three items one of which appeared to be human bones, another somekind of pendant and the third what looked like a bottle full of blood. As she watched one of the demons holding the bottle of blood jumped into the hole. _Huh demons committing suicide what's going on here,_ she wondered a moment before a violent earthquake rattled the building, seemingly in response to the demon diving into the hole.

"The demons they are the sacrifice," she abruptly heard a male voice say. Looking in the direction the voice had come from she saw that it was Alexander who abruptly seemed to pause. _He can sense me,_ she thought before Alexander looked around until his eyes hit on her then he froze as two identical pairs of brown eyes stared at each other.

_Who the hell is she,_ Xander wondered gazing at the strange woman who looked to only be a few years older than him. She was carrying a case and had a purse slung across her shoulders but it was her eyes and face that really caught his attention as it was like looking at a feminine version of his own face. "Paige," he whispered before blinking wondering where on Earth that had come from.

"Spike not in the hole," Willow's voice abruptly yelled drawing him back into the fight, just in time to see Spike hurl one of the Vahrall demons – carrying the bag full of bones – into the pit that led down to the Hellmouth.

"What I was helping," the platinum blond haired man answered a moment before another violent tremor rocked the building.

"Get out of here the whole place is going to come down," the blond haired teenage girl answered as she fought with the remaining demon, displaying in the process speed and strength that was far beyond a normal human let alone one her size. _The Slayer,_ Paige realised with a gasp before a support beam fell from the ceiling and hit the white haired man dropping him senseless to the deck.

Paige decided then and there that enough was enough. "How can I help," she called looking at Alexander as he moved to assist the knocked down man. Alexander froze again and looked back at her.

"The talisman," Xander said not really understanding why he was talking to this woman just something inside him was saying he could trust her and at the same time saying he should know her though they'd never met before now. "Get the talisman without it they won't be able to complete the ritual and open the Hellmouth."

"That's easy," Paige replied before holding out a hand and focusing on the talisman that the last demon was just picking up off the floor having thrown off the Slayer and the dark haired man in battle dress who was helping her. "Talisman," she said reaching out with her personal power.

Immediately the talisman glowed blue in the demons hands before to the shock of everyone in the shattered room dissolving into a stream of white-blue orbs that shot across the room to Paige's hand. Whereupon the orbs coalesced back into the talisman known as the Word of Valios, for a second the now talisman-less demon gaped in disbelief before roaring in anger and starting to move towards her intent on getting it back.

"Vanquishing potion," Paige yelled holding out her other hand calling a vanquishing potion from her back, the moment it finished telekinetic orbing into her hand she threw it at the demon with all her might. It hit full on the glass vial breaking with a crash spewing its contents onto the demon which immediately convulsed as red and orange lines snaked instantly across its body. The Vahrall screamed in a combination of surprise, pain and fury as it felt its very nature being destroyed by the powerful magic of the potion, then in a brilliant flash of magical flame it exploded and crumpled into dust.

Silence filled the room everyone but Paige gaping in disbelief at where the Vahrall demon – a creature physically more powerful than even Buffy – had been standing before being incinerated by the potion thrown by Paige before turning their eyes on the woman herself. Paige shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny she was getting.

After a moment Riley Finn cleared his throat. "Okay what was that," he asked drawing everyone's attention to him.

"That is what I would like to know," Buffy replied before turning her attention to Riley for a few moments noticing that he was in his full battle kit as opposed to the civilian clothes she was used to seeing him in. "Riley what are you doing here?"

"I was passing by and I thought I heard people inside," Riley admitting thinking quickly and mentally kicking himself for following them in here without a plan for getting out without being identified. He hadn't even put on the balaclava that the Initiative field teams had worn during their first few missions before they'd stopped wearing routinely them as it had proven far too easy for HST's to rip them off in the heat of battle.

"You routinely walk around in military battle dress," Paige asked with a smirk that instantly reminded Buffy, Willow and Spike of Xander.

"You do look very conspicuous Riley," Buffy added smirking herself.

"Your one of the commandoes that we've been hearing about aren't you," Xander asked.

"C…c…commando no not me," Riley answered, "it's for paintball, yeah this a paintball get up." _Great one Riley,_ he thought wincing at the disbelieving looks he was getting. He inwardly cringed Director Walsh would have his head when she learned of this and his poor plausible deniability skills.

"Yeah right," Xander replied sarcastically and resisting the impulse to laugh when Riley winced clearly knowing that he wasn't fooling them. It was quite amusing really. After a moment he decided to take pity on the very uncomfortable commando and turned his full attention back to Paige. He still had no idea how her knew her name and why he felt such a connection to her. Buffy followed his gaze.

"So who are you?" she demanded, "what was that thing you did to get the Word of Valios and throw that potion at the Vahrall demon?"

"My name is Paige Mathews," Paige replied, "as for how I dealt with that demon and got this talisman well that's easy magic. Oh and speaking of this talisman what do you want to do with it?" she held up the talisman. "Those demons seemed to really want it presumably for some apocalypse ritual."

"We should get rid of it its far too dangerous," Buffy said, "Anything that can cause the Hellmouth to open is too dangerous to exist."

"That's easily done," Paige replied with a smile before wracking her memory for a spell she could use before eventually deciding to trust herself and make one up as Phoebe had tried to school her to do a few times since she'd first met her sisters and become a Charmed One. "Sun and moon, earth and sky, hear my cry. Take this amulet from this place, exile it to outer space."

Silver-white orbs immediately flared into existence and swirled around the talisman before it vanished taking the orbs with it. Paige lowered her hand and noticed how the one called Riley was gaping at her – clearly magic being a new experience for him – and also noticing the intense interest she was getting from the redheaded girl.

"You're a witch," Willow exclaimed awed by the display of power. Despite her own skills in magic she doubted she'd have been able to perform such a banishment spell, there was also the fact that Paige had spoken the spell in English, albeit with a hint of a rhyme. Whenever she cast spells herself she always had to speak in Latin or Romany to get the spells to work at all. Clearly Paige was a powerful witch and she'd be sure to pick her brains later.

"Among other things," Paige replied with a smile.

"How did you get the spell to work in English I always have to use Latin or the Romany language?"

"Chill Will's I don't think this is the best place for this conversation," Xander said smirking at the way his long term friend was metaphorically bouncing up and down to ask magic questions to Paige. He hoped Paige didn't answer Willow too much as it was starting to concern him how Willow regarded magic as if it was some arena in which she could show off. Though he was no expert on magic, indeed it never seemed to work right around him for some reason; he doubted it could be used like that without consequences, consequences Willow seemed to ignore far too often for his liking.

"Xander's right we need to leave," Buffy agreed. "This isn't a safe place for any of us to be. Paige I appreciate it that you came to help us but this isn't a safe place to be. Where are you staying?"

"Nowhere right now," Paige admitted as Buffy started to lead the way out of the burned out high school through what had been the libraries fire escape. "I got into town literally a few minutes ago. I was about to go find a hotel or something when I spotted you coming in here."

"So what brings you to town," Buffy asked hoping to make an ally of Paige as like Willow she'd guessed that Paige was a very powerful witch and the more magic users she had on her side the better her chances of living at least some semblance of a normal life. Even if she wasn't going to be in town long she might be able to teach Willow a few new magical tricks which would only make the slaying easier.

"It's personal," Paige replied as they stepped out of the ruined building back into the cooling night air. "I'm here looking for someone."

"Anyone we can help you find? Assuming you don't mean any harm."

"No I'm not hear to harm who I'm here to find," Paige answered. "In fact I've already found him. Magic can be a wonderful thing it brought me right to him."

"So who were you looking for," Xander asked having a feeling deep down that he already knew the answer, why he felt that way though he had no idea.

"You Alexander," Paige confirmed.

"Me!" Xander exclaimed shocked that what he'd thought the answer was going to be turned out to be correct.

"Why were you looking for Xander," Willow demanded before Xander could while noticing out of the corner of her eyes Riley pull away and vanish into the darkness. She paid Riley's departure no mind, focusing all her attention on the witch who'd apparently come looking for her best male friend.

"As I said its personal."

"Come on you can tell us?" Willow prompted.

"Not right now I would rather speak with Alexander about it alone first if that's alright. If he chooses to tell you afterwards that's his decision."

"I don't have secrets from Buffy and Willow," Xander told her.

Paige sighed. "I came here three to four years back in time to save your life," she said deciding to tell at least part of the truth now hopefully enough to throw Buffy and Willow off the scent for a bit. She wanted to be alone with Xander before she told him the truth that she was his sister and that he was half whitelighter half witch just like she was.

"Someone's threatening Xander's life," Buffy demanded whirling to give Paige a sharp look. Paige nodded. "Who," Buffy demanded seething that someone would threaten the life of one of her friends, whichever vampire or demon it was were going to be sorry when she got her hands on them. You could threaten her with death but you didn't ever go after the people she cared about.

"Who would want to kill peaches," Spike asked smirking wincing when Buffy and Willow alike threw glares at him that made him shake in his vampiric boots.

"Someone you already know and don't call Alexander by that derisive name Spike," Paige growled warningly. "Keep doing it and I might be tempted to do something very unpleasant to you."

Spike blanched. "Okay, okay," he replied holding up his hands in surrender as he knew better than to piss off a witch. "I better go see you back at the basement pe… Xander." With that the vampire fled into the darkness with a speed like his pants were on fire prompting a laugh from Buffy.

"You scare vampires well," she said grinning.

"Spike's a vampire? Why have you not vanquished him?"

"An effectively neutered vampire at the moment, there's a chip in his head that prevents him harming of feeding on a human it was put there by the government programme Riley works for. I maybe the Slayer but I won't kill him when he's unable to fight back as that wouldn't be fair," Buffy explained gaining an understanding nod from Paige. "Now whose threatening Xander?"

"You know her. You all do."

"Her? Cordelia," Buffy asked.

"No."

"Then who…" her voice trailed off as she thought about the new woman in Xander's life. "You don't mean Anya do you?"

"Yes."

Silence greeted that statement. "But why would Anya want to kill me," Xander asked as they resumed walking and feeling like someone had just punched him in the stomach. He had only just started to really get close to the eleven hundred year old former vengeance demon, to learn that she wanted to kill him for some reason was heart breaking.

"The exact reasons are complicated but in the end Alexander it boils down to who and what you really are."

"Tell me," Xander demanded. "And please stop calling me by my full name, call me Xander everyone does."

"I'd rather tell you that privately Xander."

"Please!"

At the slight pleading tone in her brothers voice Paige sighed and conceded that she would have to tell them at least part of the rest of the story. "Though you may think you're a normal person Xander you're not and you never have been from the moment you were conceived you were never meant to be normal. As to how I know that your not normal well there's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it.

"You're my brother, specifically my twin brother."

Xander froze in shock as the words left Paige's mouth. He wanted to deny her words, say that he wasn't her brother but something within him stopped him. Something that told him that Paige was telling him the truth, she was his sister. And not just his sister but his _twin_ sister and she'd come back in time to save him from death at Anya's hands. On top of everything else they'd been through tonight, everything they'd learned the information was too much. The word spun then everything went dark as he fainted dead away.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Well there's the second chapter folks, all the work from this chapter on is mine so I really hope you like it. I know I could be seen to be going a bit too fast in the introductions but I don't want to really drag things out too much and thought the sooner Paige tells Xander and co the truth the better as for what they're going to do about it, how they're going to deal with Anya and so on and the reality that Xander is half whitelighter well you'll just have to wait and see.**

**I think it should be obvious by now that Paige has been transported back in time by about three years to Buffy season four which coincides with season two of Charmed. Events take place from the ending of the Buffy season four episode Doomed. I made this decision because at this time Xander's relationship with Anya is still quite new and truth be told I'm not that familiar with Buffy beyond season five. Its been a few years and I haven't caught up with those episodes online yet.**

**Also I would like to assure everyone here that I've not forgotten my other active fics. It's just this one really grabbed me and I did want to take a break from sci-fi fanfics for a bit. I'm already working on updates for some of my other fics so there is no cause for anyone to flame about no updates for the other fics.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Birthright**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own purposes, sadly Buffy and Charmed remain the properties of their respective creators.**

* * *

_**Chapter Three**_

Rupert Giles anxiously paced the length of his apartment's living room waiting for news from Buffy on the exact outcome of the battle to stop the latest evil plot to open the Hellmouth and bring about the end of the world. Not for the first time he wondered what it was about demons that made them constantly want to open the Hellmouth and bring about Armageddon. It would seem to be counterproductive for them in the long run as none of the demons that they'd faced – save Wilkins after his ascension – had anywhere near the strength or power to be major players should the Hellmouth open and some of the nastier denizens of the hell dimensions come into the world. In fact many demons would be lucky if they weren't simply relegated to the bottom of the food chain along with humanity.

As a result you would think the idea of not opening the Hellmouth would be a no brainier for the demons and not a goal to aspire to. But it wasn't which only went to show that for all the physical and sometimes mystical power that demons had they weren't exactly the smartest things in creation. Something that he knew they should be thankful for as if demons were to ever get their act together and work as one then not just the town, or the United States but the whole world would be in very serious trouble. Indeed from what he remembered the Watchers Council Archives were full of examples of what could happen when demons organised themselves. Cataclysmic was a good way to describe it as the Watchers Council had information that confirmed it had been a demonic and not barbarian army that had finally brought about the end of the Roman Empire and plunged Europe into a darkness it had taken centuries to recover from.

The sound of someone knocking on the door roused him out of his thoughts. Turning he hurriedly moved to the door and checked through the peephole and saw Buffy standing outside along with Willow and another woman he'd never seen before. He also saw that Buffy seemed to have Xander over her shoulder in a fireman's carry with the dark haired teenager appearing to be unconscious. Eyes widening in concern he opened the door.

"Good Lord what happened," he asked standing aside to let them enter in the normal tradition of Sunnydale. "Is he alright?"

"Xander's fine Giles he's just fainted," Buffy replied as she pushed past her Watcher before carrying her unconscious friend into the living area and setting him down on the couch before giving him a worried look. That fact that Xander had keeled over on them in a dead faint had shaken her deeply as it was such an un-Xander thing to happen it had certainly never happened before and they'd dealt with some pretty wiggy things over the last few years things that would have sent most people running away screaming, yet Xander had never once reacted this way. _Though if I'd just been introduced to my long lost twin whose travelled back in time and been told that my lover is out to kill me I'd probably have reacted the same way,_ she thought.

"He fainted," Giles repeated sounding incredulous as everyone – including somewhat to his surprise the mysterious young woman – came into the apartment as well allowing him to close the door and follow his Slayer into the living room. "Are you sure there isn't something wrong? Xander doesn't faint."

"There is nothing physically wrong with him, believe me I would know if there was," the stranger replied, "he's just a little overwhelmed by what I told him. Under the circumstances it's perfectly understandable that he'd keel over in the way that he did."

"And who might you be?" Giles asked looking at the mystery woman with interest. It was her facial features that really caught his attention, especially her brown eyes as they were exactly the same shade of hazel brown as Xander's were. Coupled with a noticeable similarity in features he would have said that she was an older sibling of his, though Xander didn't have any siblings at least as far as he knew.

"Oh sorry where are my manners. My name is Paige Matthews," Paige replied, "and you are?"

"Rupert Giles."

"Giles is my Watcher well technically ex-Watcher as he was fired by the asshole head of the Watchers Council," Buffy explained before addressing Giles. "It's okay Giles she knows I'm the Slayer. Paige here is a witch a powerful one she helped us defeat the Vahrall demons and keep the Hellmouth closed."

"And the talisman," Giles asked referring to the Word of Valios.

"It will never be able to be used again," Paige replied with a smile, "I cast a banishment spell it is now somewhere in space where no one can retrieve it."

"I see," Giles answered feeling a profound sense of relief that they would not have to worry about another group of demons coming after the Word of Valios to use its power to open the Hellmouth. If he had known precisely what that little talisman had really been he would have destroyed it when he'd first acquired it a few years ago. As it was he'd kept it as a simple curiosity that he'd never truly gotten around to researching as shortly after he'd gotten it he'd been appointed as Buffy's Watcher replacing the much lamented Merrick.

"Oh and Giles Paige here is apparently Xander's twin sister and she's apparently travelled back in time to save him," Buffy continued stunning Giles and giving Paige a faint look of suspicion. While the other woman had helped them and seemed genuine when they'd spoken afterwards she was still wary of her claims. "But isn't time travel impossible? Plus as far as I know Xander doesn't have any siblings."

"When it comes to magic Slayer you'll find that almost nothing is impossible as long as you have the magical strength and skill for it," Paige explained. "I simply used a time travel spell to come back here and save the brother I never knew about, not until Alexander was murdered to prevent him finding out the truth about just who and what he is. And why he's had to grow up in such an unsuitable home as I'm sure you're all aware by now that his 'parents' aren't exactly the nicest people to live with."

"That's an understatement," Willow muttered even her own often absentee parents were better parents than Anthony and Jessica Harris were. Indeed her mom Ira had a few times tried to get social services involved on Xander's behalf – especially whenever Xander had come over hers or Jesse's to escape his parents drunken rows – but for some reason nothing was ever done about the situation. For the first time she wondered if Sunnydale Syndrome extended to things other than the supernatural as never once had they found evidence of the verbal and physical abuse that the Rosenberg's had known was going on.

"Is it really that bad," Buffy asked softly as she had little knowledge of Xander's home life as in all the years she'd known him she'd never once heard him say anything about it voluntarily. Which when she thought about it should have been a dead giveaway that it was a far from nurturing environment. Willow simply nodded in response. "Jesus," Buffy muttered under her breath.

Before she could say anything more and start interrogating Paige a bit about what was so special about Xander a groan from the couch caught her attention. Looking over she saw Xander stirring and as she watched the familiar pair of hazel eyes flickered open, before Xander groaned again and carefully sat up.

"Oh man I just had the weirdest dream," he muttered before blinking and realising that a) he was on the couch in Giles apartment, b) Buffy and Willow were present along with said apartments owner/occupier and c) the woman from the dream, the woman who'd claimed to be his sister, was here. That could only mean… "It wasn't a dream was it?"

"No it wasn't," Buffy confirmed. "How are you feeling?"

"You want an honest answer? I'm confused as hell, hell I've known for years I was adopted Tony never let me forget it but this is…" Xander's voice trailed off and he shook his head.

"Overwhelming believe me I know," Paige replied sympathetically recalling how overwhelmed she'd been when she'd first learned the truth about her connection of Piper and Phoebe, that they were her half-sisters and that was before she'd even learned that like them she was a witch, well half-witch. "I felt the same kind of thing when it happened to me. Only in your case its worse as your entire life has been manipulated with the goal of trying to turn you to evil."

"WHAT!" Xander, Willow, Buffy and Giles all exclaimed at the same time.

Paige nodded. "The Source himself has been trying to turn you to evil since a short time after you were born," she explained.

"By The Source you don't mean the ruler of the underworld," Giles queried a profound feeling of dread settling on him as he awaited the answer.

"The very same," Paige confirmed.

"Good lord," Giles replied taking off his glasses and starting to polish them in his normal coping mechanism for situations like this. "That is concerning."

"Giles we can speak Watcherese by now when you say that we know its break out weapons and prepare for apocalypse time," Buffy pointed out frowning worriedly. "Is this Source that dangerous?"

"He is more dangerous than you could ever imagine Buffy," Giles admitted. "No enemy you have ever faced – not even The Judge or Mayor Wilkins – comes anywhere near the power of the Source. The fact that he's interested in Xander is bloody worrying to say the very least."

"But why would he be interested in me," Xander wondered as he was just the Zeppo, the normal one which had caused a few problems with Buffy trying to force him out of the slaying a few times especially last year only to reluctantly admit she needed him to take down the mayor as he was the only one of them with knowledge of bombs and explosives.

"Because of what you really are, Al… Xander," Paige replied remembering at the last minute that her twin preferred to be called Xander as opposed to his full name. "As I said outside you may believe that you're a normal human being but you're not. You only appear that way because your powers are bound."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Powers," he repeated, "I have powers?"

Paige nodded. "You do but right now they're bound so to intents and purposes you appear to be and are a normal mortal human man," she explained, "the Source himself put the binding on you when he realised he couldn't magically corrupt you that you were just absorbing and purifying the magic expelling the demonic taint while making the raw magic itself a part of you. Fortunately it need not be permanent as I brought a potion with me that will remove the block and give you back the powers that are your birthright."

"So let me get this straight Xander's meant to be a witch like you," Willow asked feeling a slight hint of glee. If she was right and Xander was meant to be a witch and they could remove the binding it would be an awesome coincidence. Despite her increasing relationship with Tara, and the revelation that she was bi-sexual, she still cared deeply for Xander. Him having magic would give them something else to bond over, even if they never developed a sexual relationship as she'd come to realise that that was a pointless dream. Xander would never see her that way instead he loved her like a brother would and she was surprised to realise that she was fine with that.

"Well yes but I'm not just a witch and by extension neither is Xander," Paige replied before sighing. "Do you mind if I sit down? If we are going to discuss this now I would rather be sitting down."

"Oh sorry please sit," Giles replied gesturing to one of the chairs before disappearing into the kitchen momentarily returning with another seat so he himself could sit down. Once everyone was sitting down he spoke again. "So what are you Ms Matthews," he asked, "and by extension what is Xander supposed to be?"

"Do you know anything about whitelighters?"

"A little the Watchers Council has only had a few encounters with them down the centuries," Giles answered frowning, "they're supposed to be guardian angels of a sort. But what do whitelighters have to do with you and Xander?"

"Because our mother was Patty Halliwell, a witch of the Warren line and our father was Sam Wilder her whitelighter. Until very recently – from my perspective at least – it was forbidden for witches and whitelighters to have relationships beyond a friendship, certainly they weren't supposed to fall in love with each other. But they did and from there nature took its course culminating in our," she gestured to Xander then herself, "birth. We're hybrids half-witch/half-whitelighter the powers of both in one being. Though until recently no one remembered Xander's birth as that memory was blocked within seconds of him being born mere minutes before my own birth."

"Did this Source fellow do that," Xander asked.

"No this is where it gets a lot more complicated and convoluted so please bear with me," Paige replied before launching into explaining about everything how another whitelighter had taken Xander and blocked their parents memory of him intending to place him in a good home and watch over him herself while their parents ensured that Paige was adopted herself by a good couple.

"Why were they giving you up for adoption," Buffy interrupted.

"Patty already had three children Prue, Piper and Phoebe," Paige explained, "she couldn't have managed anymore as a single mother plus she was afraid, afraid our elder sisters would be denied their powers and destiny if she kept me. Remember the birth of a witch-whitelighter child was forbidden at the time. After she was released from the hospital Sam orbed them – orbing is a kind of magical teleportation ability that whitelighters and whitelighter hybrids have – both to a church where they left me with a nun with instructions to find me a good home and she did. I never knew much about my birth mother or my sisters until about a year or so from now your time. But back to the history."

As calmly as she could she explained how the Source's Seer had learned of Xander's birth and intercepted the whitelighter who was either going to watch over – or possibly raise him – herself nearly killing her and taking baby Xander. She went on to explain everything that Sam had told her and her sisters about what the Source had planned and how it went wrong again and again. Ultimately explaining how in exasperation the Source bound Xander's powers and placed him with the Harris's hopefully to make him learn to hate humans through his experiences with them.

"Nice to know you could always piss off the big bads Xander," Buffy said laughing at the mental image of this black haired toddler resisting everything that the mighty demon lord did to him in his attempts to turn him to evil and driving him to distraction with the repeated failures. You could always guarantee that Xander would irritate the big baddies to learn that it was apparently a lifelong talent of his was honestly not that surprising.

"Guess it's a gift," Xander replied with a shrug.

"Guess so."

"So what happened next I imagine the Source wasn't pleased when I didn't dance to his tune," Xander asked directing the question to Paige.

"One thing with the Source he's a patient bastard if ever their was one," Paige explained, "He didn't see you latching on to two friends as a surrogate family. Instead he saw it as an opportunity. He wanted you to get close to Willow and Jesse before taking them away from you by getting them turned into vampires."

"The Source was behind Jesse's death," Willow demanded before Xander could feeling the old grief and anger over Jesse's fate come surging back to the fore.

"Yes he planned to take you as well but neither he nor the Master Vampire in his employ factored in Buffy here coming to the Hellmouth and stopping them," Paige replied. "That really put a crimp in his plans but the Source is nothing if not pragmatic he adapted and he certainly didn't mind sacrificing a few minions now and again on the Hellmouth to keep you all busy. It took him a few years but in the end an opportunity came up to let him put a spy in your ranks."

"Anya?" Xander asked feeling a stab of pain and betrayal at the thought that Anya was only with him to spy on them and to ultimately kill him.

"Yes after her power centre was destroyed and Lord D'Hoffryn refused to replace it the Source himself sort out Anyanka and made a deal with her," Paige explained, "in exchange for demonic powers and a place in the underworld as one of his elites Anya would spy on you and take charge of the sect of demonic watchers assigned to keep an eye on Xander."

"Anya can't be a spy she's so tactless that she couldn't lie to save her life," Willow exclaimed.

"It's all an act, Willow," Paige explained, "Anyanka is a lot smarter and more devious than you give her credit for she wouldn't have lasted eleven hundred years as a vengeance demon if she wasn't. The tactless thing is all a ruse designed to make her fly under your radar and let her operate without risk of being vanquished as while she is very powerful and capable of flinging powerful energy balls she's not invincible. She can be killed either by potion, spell or decapitation."

"Are those energy balls what she…" Willow's voice trailed off shuddering as she imagined Xander's death at Anya's hands.

"Yes," Paige confirmed. "Two or three years from now she'll fire one at Xander killing him before shimmering away to evade being vanquished in retaliation."

Xander shuddered and looked down. "Why," he whispered softly feeling like someone had kicked him hard in the stomach at the knowledge that Anya would kill him.

"A contingency," Paige explained, "the Source is well aware that if Xander was to ever find out what he really is then he could become a very serious threat. And in the future that I came from you did learn the truth when Sam found out about you and came to find you. When she saw him with you, talking to you she knew the game was up so she killed you. I came back in time to prevent that, I was only planning to come back a few weeks but instead the spell brought me back a few years. Why I'm not sure but like many good spells the time portal spell has a mind of its own, it brought me back this far for a reason."

"What could be the reason for that," Giles wondered having listened in fascination to everything Paige had been saying. He would have never in a million years thought of anything like this but in light of what Paige had been saying the yearly apocalypse attempts suddenly made a frightening amount of sense. The Source had been acting like the worlds biggest puppet master pulling their strings from his throne in the underworld, all to keep them busy while he tried to come up with a new plan to cause Xander to fall into darkness.

Paige shrugged. "That I don't know," she admitted. "It will no doubt reveal itself in time. Until that time I will help you battle the evils of this town to the best of my abilities."

"Thank you," Buffy replied with a smile as she would welcome the help of another witch, especially one as powerful and experienced as Paige seemed to be, who knew she might be able to even teach Willow a few things. Though she got the distinct impression that Paige would be spending a lot of time with Xander essentially getting to know her brother and probably in teaching him how to use his powers if they were unbound. _And isn't that wiggy Xander having powers,_ she thought, _it's going to take some getting used to assuming his powers get unbound._

"So what do we do about Anya," Willow asked.

"Simple she's a demon I slay her," Buffy replied.

"That might not be a good idea just yet Buffy," Giles cautioned. "Now that we know Anya is here to spy on us for the Source we can use that against her. Only include her in things we want to include her in, show her what we want her to see and conceal what we don't want her to know."

"False information," Xander replied thoughtfully his soldier memories coming to the fore and seeing the sense in Giles argument. "That could work especially if Anya is the solo point of contact between the demons in Sunnydale and the Source."

"As far as I know she is," Paige confirmed before frowning. "I would prefer simply vanquishing her outright but using her against the Source does have a certain appeal, especially as he'd destroy her immediately upon realising she and through her him have been played. Still if we do this there is one thing we should do first."

"Which is," Xander asked.

"Unbind your powers," Paige replied with a smile. "That way if she does catch onto our deception and tries to kill you you'd be able to either fight back or escape by orbing out."

"Good point," Buffy agreed looking at her best male friend to see the thoughtful look on his face. "Well Xander?"

Xander sighed. "Will it hurt," he asked softly though he could see the logic in unbinding his so-called powers – which he wasn't entirely convinced he had – and truth be told having powers of his own would stop Buffy's sometimes not very subtle attempts to exclude him from the slaying.

"It doesn't normally," Paige answered "Though I've never had mine unbound by potion. Though I've had to take potions before and they generally don't taste that nice. I have the reversal potion with me I would advise if you drink it to do so quickly."

Xander made a face at the thought of taking a revolting potion. Knowing his luck it would taste like liquid shit or something equally unpleasant. The question was did he really want his powers unbound? He already knew the answer. "Fine let's do it before I change my mind," he said.

"I promise you won't regret it," Paige replied holding out a hand and summoning her personal power, "reversal potion." Immediately a tiny swarm of white-blue orbs appeared in her hand before fading away revealing a slender glass vial containing a green potion. "Here," she said offering Xander the potion.

Slowly almost reluctantly Xander took the vial from her and looked at the grass coloured liquid inside the vial for a few moments before popping the lid. Aware that everyone was watching him he brought it up to his lips though he noticed with surprise that it didn't smell bad; indeed it smelt almost like peppermint. _Huh maybe it won't be so bad,_ he thought taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly before resolutely downing the potion as quickly as he could and noting with surprise that it didn't really taste that bad. If anything it reminded him of the taste of whisky with some overtones of honey and liquorice.

For a few moments nothing seemed to happen then he felt it. A strange tingling that seemed to come from the very core of his being and spread throughout his body. He closed his eyes and shivered as if suddenly cold his skin coming up in goose bumps half a second before a curious light sensation momentarily filled him.

Before everyone's eyes he began to glow from within with a white-blue light that pulsed and flowed forming an aura around him. But only for a moment as for an instant he turned into a man-shaped cloud of white-blue orbs that pulsed rapidly before shimmering green for several seconds before turning back to the normal blue-white orbs. A moment later they faded away and Xander re-materialised before slumping back on the couch shivering slightly with reaction.

"Whoa that was weird," he said opening his eyes again and sounding almost like he was out of breath.

"Are you okay," Buffy asked concerned just beating Willow and Giles to the punch.

"Yeah I feel fine better than fine actually," Xander admitted as he felt, he wasn't sure what he felt as if he was suddenly complete for the first time in his life but hadn't realised before now that there was something missing, some part of him that had been locked away which he realise it had been. He hadn't even felt this good when he'd been Hyena Boy. And there was something else. A sensation of profound happiness and elation at an accomplishment. With a jolt he realised it wasn't coming from him prompting him to look at Paige whose eyes widened at the same time as his did as she realised the same thing.

"I can feel you," they said at the same time.

"Whoa freaky," Buffy said blinking, "you two do realise you spoke at the same time in the same tone of voice? Guess that proves you really are twins despite an apparent major age gap."

"Guess so," Xander admitted. "So where are you going to stay Paige. I would offer for you to come and stay with me but I won't inflict Tony and Jessica on anyone," he shook his head, "I really need to get around to finding an apartment of my own."

"Olivia's not coming back from England for a few days and I have a spare room," Giles pointed out, "you would be welcome to stay here with me. At least for awhile it would be safer than finding a hotel in the middle of the night. Not that I don't doubt you could deal with any vampires you encountered Paige."

"If you're sure Mr Giles."

"I'm sure I wouldn't have offered otherwise."

"Alright I accept."

Giles smiled. "You're welcome," he said. "Now given the time I suggest we all begin heading to our respective homes you and Willow especially Buffy since you do have classes in the morning."

"Good point," Buffy agreed knowing that the first lecture tomorrow was with Professor Walsh and if there was one thing the self described 'bitch queen of death' despised it was tardiness on behalf of her students. "Come on Willow."

"Much as I would love to stay here and chat to Paige for a bit I should go home myself," Xander admitted with a sigh, "I have to go to work in the morning."

"Oh really what do you do?" Paige asked honestly curious about what her brother did for a living beyond fighting evil at night.

"Construction worker," Xander replied, "we're refurbishing some apartments out by Kingsman's Bluff right now if you want to come and find me during the day."

"I might do that," Paige admitted though she guessed she'd be quite busy during the day finding a hotel or something to stay in during her time here in Sunnydale. "Though we are going to have to meet to pencil in some time for me to teach you about how to use your abilities now they're unbound. We also need to figure out what your active witch power is and if it's influenced at all by your whitelighter half in the way mine is." Seeing that her twin was about to ask a question she held up a hand. "I'll explain tomorrow."

Xander nodded reluctantly before looking over at Buffy and Willow. "Shall we go then," he asked and got nods from the two of them, he'd walk with them for awhile as the neighbourhood where he lived wasn't too far from the east side of the university campus. For a moment he hesitated then he hugged Paige goodnight before heading for the door with the two girls a few steps behind him.

Paige watched them leave until she heard the door shut. A moment later Giles cleared his throat to get her attention. "I'll show you to the spare room," he said.

"Thank you Mr Giles."

"As I said before your welcome and please Paige just call me Giles."

"Alright Giles then." Giles smiled back before turning and heading to the hallway that separated the living area off from the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. Paige followed a few paces behind her a faint smile on her face, the first part of her mission here had been completed and her brothers powers were now unbound. Of course there was still the job of teaching him how to use them and figuring out just which Warren line ability he had as an active power. _Maybe that's why I've been sent so far back,_ she thought, _to ensure Alexander learns how to use his powers properly after all he doesn't have our sisters around to teach him about magic or a friendly whitelighter in the form of Leo to help with that side of things. He just has me._

For a moment that thought and the revelation that they were both alone here, without the support of the rest of the Halliwell family disturbed her. She'd gotten so used to having her sisters and Leo around to help her with things that being without that safety net was going to be difficult to say the least. She shrugged after a couple of seconds thought, she'd adapt to it no matter how difficult it was as it wasn't like she had any other choice.

* * *

**The Heavens**

**That Same Time**

The heaven-like realm of the Elders was normally a stately quiet place, filled with peace and serenity as the Elders and their whitelighters watched over the human race both the magical and the mundane parts of it with equal care. Now though that serenity was absent as moments before a powerful wave of magic had washed through their awareness and transformed the normal calmness of the heavens into a literal beehive of activity as they investigated the source of the wave.

It hadn't taken them long to trace the source of the magical disturbance. To say that they'd been surprised to find it had come from Sunnydale would have been an understatement, especially as the wave had had no dark magic connotations to it. Instead it had felt like a powerful witch had just come into his or her powers yet different at the same time. That surprise turned into shock when the Elders Council reviewed the last few hours on the Hellmouth.

"How is this possible," Elder Odin said into the silence that had fallen on the council chambers as the seven members of the Council considered what they had just viewed. "How could the Matthews girl have travelled back in time from the future and still have her powers?"

"There are a few time travel spells capable of doing such a feat I did not believe the Halliwell Book of Shadows contained any of them though," Gideon admitted. "Though if you recall Odin Ms Matthews was expecting to only travel back in time a few weeks and not nearly three years. Someone must have interfered with the spell sending her much farther back than she ever intended."

"But none of us did it we would have sensed it the moment the vortex opened in this time," Odin replied, "someone else must have interfered. Maybe the Powers?"

"No they wouldn't do something like this it would affect that stupid balance they're forever going on about too much," Sandra broke in, "they have never approved of Mister Harris as we all know quite well given he has had this nasty – at least from the Powers point of view – habit of interfering with their prophecies and foiling their plans." A few smiles and chuckles went around the council chambers as while they and the Powers were technically on the same side they didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on a great many things. "Though what interests me is the fact that none of us knew that Mister Harris was the son of Patty Halliwell and Sam Wilder before now. Save one of course," she gave Angela a pointed look making the other female Elder cringe knowing she was in the celestial equivalent of the proverbial dog house with her fellow Elders.

"It was confidence I was asked to keep," Angela defended herself. "That's why I stopped Sam and Patty from ever remembering Alexander's existence. After the Source took him I assumed he'd killed him when he couldn't convert him."

"Obviously he didn't and now we've got a very powerful being out there who's grown up on the Hellmouth of all places. That is bound to have had some affect on him are we just going to let him walk around," Gideon replied scowling at her but then of all the Council he was the most outspoken on the issue of witch-whitelighter hybrids. While the rest of them had come to more or less accept it as inevitable and destined to happen Gideon was still absolutely against them.

"Enough Gideon we know your views on the issue of hybrids and they have been outvoted I will not warn you again about bringing the matter of them up," Ramus warned. "We shall discuss Angela's conduct regarding Alexander later. Right now he presents us with an opportunity that we would be fools not to take advantage of."

"What do you mean Ramus," Odin asked curiously looking at the oldest and most respected member of the Council of Elders. Though soft spoke Ramus could be wily and crafty when he wanted to be and he'd clearly spotted an opportunity for them to advance their own goals.

"What I mean Odin is that Alexander being both witch and whitelighter gives us a legitimate reason to assign a whitelighter to help Ms Matthews and possibly eventually facilitate her return to her own place in space and time."

"And why would we wish to do that," Sandra asked curious.

"Alexander has the right to understand and know both sides of his heritage and in helping him we can also – quite easily – arrange to help young Ms Rosenberg understand and learn the true ways of magic," Ramus replied. "She currently has a great deal of potential power, almost as much as Melinda Warren had centuries ago, but unlike Melinda she lacks all but the most basic of knowledge of the rules of magic and how to and how not to use it. Knowledge that the Powers could have arranged for her to be given but which they have not done so."

"Knowing those fools they probably have some complex, convoluted and self serving plan for her," Gideon agreed with a snort, "no doubt aimed at furthering their absurd ideas of balance regardless of the cost to Ms Rosenberg and any innocents around her. I agree this does give us the opportunity to interfere and send down a whitelighter to assist, guide and let us foil whatever plan those pricks have in store for her."

"Are we all in agreement," Odin asked looking around at the council and receiving agreeing nods and acting in his capacity as the celestial equivalent of a chairman for this particular meeting of the council. "Very well then it's decided we will assign a whitelighter to assist Ms Matthews, Mr Harris and Ms Rosenberg. Now who should we assign Leo?"

"No Leo has his hands full enough with the Charmed Ones he does not need more charges on top of those he already has. Besides there would be too much risk of him slipping up and informing Piper and through her the other Charmed Ones of the existence of their little brother and sister before its time for them to know," Angela pointed out getting nods of agreement from around the chamber. "I have a much better idea a new whitelighter who's just finished his training and is only a few years older than the temporally displaced Ms Matthews in Sunnydale so he will have an easier time relating to her. There is also the advantage that he has yet to be assigned a charge."

"Who are you thinking of," Odin asked. Angela told them prompting a series of thoughtful hmm's from her fellow Elders as they considered the proposal.

"He would be the best choice," Ramus said after a few moments. "And Angela is correct that his current lack of any other charges would be an advantage as he could focus all his effort on helping the three of them."

"Agreed," Gideon answered with a nod. "If we are going to do this then it would only be fair that we send a whitelighter who can give the matter his full attention. Especially as we have Anyanka and the Sources other minions in Sunnydale to factor in as well, the last thing any of us wants is the Source learning what has happened and showing up on the Hellmouth. Wilkins ascending into an avatar of Olvikan was bad enough I shudder to think what could happen if the Source spent any length of time on the Hellmouth."

"Are we agreed," Odin asked and once again got nods. "Then it's decided, Angela as it was your idea you go and tell him. In the meantime the rest of us will discuss your own actions regarding Alexander."

Angela winced and cringed. "As you wish," she said standing up from her seat and leaving the council chamber. She knew she was in serious trouble with the other Elders about what had happened with Alexander, trouble she knew she deserved as a day hadn't gone by when she hadn't regretted what had happened to him.

Pushing aside those thoughts she slipped her hood up and began walking towards the whitelighter dormitories. She had a whitelighter to brief and send on his way to Sunnydale. It was a small thing but it was the only thing she could do to help right now, especially with her peers being more than a little annoyed with her. She would keep an eye on the situation and regardless of whatever the others did to punish her for her actions nearly two decades ago do everything in her power to help Paige and Alexander.

It was the least she could do for them.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Well here's another chapter completed and up. I will reveal the identity of the chosen whitelighter in the next chapter though I wonder if anyone can guess who it is, a little clue he has appeared on Charmed before but not as a whitelighter and that's the only hint I'll give as to his identity.**

**This will probably be my last update of this fic for a few weeks as I want to give my other works some attention as well, plus I have an idea for a Ship of the Line challenge response that is refusing point blank to leave me alone. So I'm going to listen to that particular muse and see where exactly it takes me in between working on updates for some of my other works.**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Birthright**_

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own purposes. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Charmed remain the property of their respective creators I am merely borrowing them.

* * *

_**Chapter Four**_

**Harris Residence**

**Next Morning**

The repeated, insistent electronic bleeping of his alarm clock roused Xander out of the deep, mildly uneasy sleep into which he'd slipped the evening before. Groaning softly he opened his eyes and glared at the offending device and the flashing red numerals that proclaimed for the world to see that it was seven am and thus time for him to get up and start his day. For a moment he considered silencing the alarm and then just going back to sleep but quickly dismissed that thought as he was technically still on probation with his job and thus couldn't afford to be late for work for anything other than a major emergency. Not if he wanted to keep his job and the steady income it represented, income he would need if he was to buy and run an apartment of his own.

Sighing softly he threw off the bedclothes and got up, swatted the alarm clock silencing the incessant bleeping before stretching for a few moments as his muscles had cramped up somewhat during the night. It wasn't that surprising as last night's sleep had not exactly been a peaceful one; instead he'd been tormented by dreams both of Anya killing him in various different but all unpleasant ways and of a dark place that resonated with evil and fear. While the former dreams were new and deeply, deeply disturbing the latter dream was anything but new.

Many times in his life he had dreamed of the dark, evil place. A place with walls and floors of dark brown stone, lit only by fire pits and braziers with demonic creatures everywhere – some of whom looked as human in the same way that vampires could look completely human while still being a demon on the inside. But until very recently the dream had lacked any context which – after he'd learned the truth about Sunnydale being built literally on top of a doorway to hell – had often led him to speculate to himself that he was dreaming of the vamp and demon infested caves and tunnels hidden beneath the seeming suburban paradise of Sunnydale.

But now that he thought about it, and knowing what he knew now about his past, he realised that the dream wasn't a dream at all but a memory. And it wasn't a memory of the caverns and passages that honeycombed beneath Sunnydale like a malignant rabbit warren he was pretty sure that the closest he'd ever come to those tunnels was when he bullied Angel into taking him to the Masters cave to save Buffy three years ago. Going on what Paige had said last night he was willing to bet that the images from the dream were memories of the Underworld where he'd spent the first two years of his life being bombarded by spell after spell as the Source himself tried every dark magic trick in the book – _and probably a fair few that weren't_, he thought ruefully – to turn him into an agent of evil instead of the force for good that he'd been born to be only to meet with failure again and again.

Mentally Xander shook himself and pushed aside the thoughts on the dream that wasn't a dream at all but dark echoes of his own past before starting to walk across the basement he had a day of work to get ready for there would be time to think about the past later. He moved as quietly as he could to avoid disturbing Spike as the platinum blond vampire was sprawled out asleep on his couch – an empty bottle of whiskey purloined from his parents' drinks cabinet clutched in one hand and a few empty blood bags on his chest.

Pausing he gazed at the snoring vampire for a few moments and despite his intense hatred of the bloodsuckers he couldn't help but feel a familiar stir of pity for Spike and the circumstances the hundred odd year old master vampire found himself in. _The Initiative should have just dusted him and not stuck that __thing__ in his head it would have been far less cruel. And why do we keep him around? Buffy should just stake him and put the walking corpse out of his misery,_ he thought again not for the first time since the Scoobies had first become aware of the government commandos prowling the night time streets of Sunnydale capturing vampires and demons for some nebulous purpose that they still didn't know.. Though Xander himself was willing to bet it had something to do with the government wanting to use the supernatural for military purposes as if they didn't have enough weapons already.

Shaking his head both at what the Federal government was likely really up to here in Sunnydale and whatever bizarre thought process had resulted in Buffy sparing Spikes life – or rather unlife – instead of reducing the vamp to grimy powder, he resumed walking towards the stairs. He was just starting up them when he heard the sound of raised voices from the kitchen directly over his head. _Huh they've started early today,_ he thought recognising the voices as being those of Jessica and Tony Harris in the throng of a full blown verbal brawl.

Xander paused to listen for a few moments and soon determined that the pair of drunken louts over who should go to work on time and who should stop by the liquor shop first before heading into their own job. _Great just great those useless pair of drunks have to have the usual argument now,_ he thought resisting the impulse to beat his head against the wall in annoyance. Since the stairs from the basement opened into the kitchen he knew there would be no way for him to get past them and to the bathroom without having to endure a barrage of vitriol from both Tony and Jessica and possibly having to dodge a thrown bottle or two. Meaning it was very unlikely he would be able to have a decent shower before work as he knew from experience that these fights could last anywhere from minutes to literally hours only ending when one or more of the participants stormed out.

Sighing he closed his eyes for a moment and thought about the shower and how nice its water jets on his clammy skin would have felt and abruptly felt something happen deep within him. A pulse of power, of magic, that surged for from deep within the very fibres of his being and spread throughout his body bringing with it a strange lightness, the wooden steps beneath his feet vanished and for a few seconds he knew nothing beyond a feeling of being both insubstantial and moving. Then he felt the cheap linoleum tiles of the bathroom floor form beneath him and the sensations vanished and the tingle of magic faded away.

Xander opened his eyes blinked before looking around in total surprise. Somehow he had been nearly instantaneously teleported from the basement steps to the middle of the bathroom. Shock and disbelief immobilised him for a moment before understanding dawned and he realised just what had happened, how he'd gotten here. _I..I orbed,_ he thought recalling what little Paige had said about whitelighters and witch-whitelighter powers last night in particular how she'd mentioned a magical teleportation ability that they had called orbing. An ability that he'd just reflexively tapped into to transport himself here without risking an encounter with Jessica and Tony – who he could faintly here still shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Whoa now that's cool," he said softly before turning around and locking the bathroom door before beginning his normal morning routine.

He was just about to get into the shower when two thudding impacts echoed through the house, impacts that sounded like their much abused front door slamming shut. _Guess the arguments over or at least put on hold till later,_ he thought knowing from the sudden silence in the house that Tony and Jessica had stormed out, presumably one to go straight to work the other to go to the liquor store first. Which meant that he'd get some much needed peace and quiet while he had his breakfast. Though not for the first time he found himself wondering just how his 'parents' managed to hold down their jobs as they were often drunk and frequently late due to trips for more booze any company he knew would have kicked the pair of them to the curb years ago. _Maybe the Source's minions have something to do with it,_ he thought before shrugging as it didn't really matter. Soon he'd be out of here as while she might be a demon out to spy on him and the other Scoobies for the Source, and wouldn't hesitate to kill him if she found out he knew what he really was, Anya was right about one thing, he needed a place of his own.

Mentally he shook off the thoughts on Anya – if he thought too much about her, what she really was and how she was playing with his emotions as part of her mission for the Source – he'd end up brooding and there was no way on this Earth that he was going to channel deadboy for anything let alone the ensouled vampires penchant for trying to out Batman Batman in the brooding department. Making a face at the mere thought of channelling Angel for any reason he got in the shower and turned it on. The moment that the water jets hit his skin was the moment when images burst into his mind with the force of a tsunami and swept away all awareness of the world...

* * *

"_Harris take some of those insulation rolls to Tobias' crew downstairs, he just radioed up that they've run out as the delivery truck is running late today," Steve – the crew's supervisor – said to him._

"_Sure thing Steve," he heard himself say as he stopped what he was doing and picked up some of the rolls. He was about to leave when a loud creaking, cracking noise caught his attention, prompting him to look around for the source of the distressing noise._

_Just in time to see a section of ceiling on the far side of the room give way, sending an avalanche of plaster, concrete, wood and what looked to be an old but expensive iron and enamel bathtub crashing down on Steve and Miguel burying both men under a mountain of thundering debris that wasn't quite loud enough to mask the dying screams of both men._

* * *

Xander gasped and stumbled forward as the images stopped bombarding his mind. Instinctively he shot his hand out to steady himself against the wall of the shower cubicle, his whole body shuddering with reaction. _What the hell was that,_ he thought mechanically switching off the shower and stumbling out mind still reeling from what he'd just experienced. _Was that... was that a vision?_

Still somewhat stunned and feeling more than a little sick at what he'd just witnessed he sat down on the toilet lid and tried to understand what had just happened and what he'd just seen. He had no idea how he'd seen that as Buffy was the one who was supposed to get visions not him, though to be fair this had been far clearer than Buffy's Slayer dreams which tended to be somewhat on the cryptic side. He could only think of one reason why he'd suddenly had a vision and that was because his powers were no longer bound. _Guess getting visions is a witch-whitelighter thing,_ he thought grimacing and making a mental note to ask Paige about it as she was naturally in a position to know a hell of a lot more about the whole witch-whitelighter thing and what came with it than he was.

His thoughts turned to the vision itself and what it had shown him. Clearly some disaster was about to occur at the Kingsman's Bluff apartments, a disaster that would claim the lives of two of his friends and colleagues as he was well aware that that much falling debris travelling as quickly as it had been would have killed both men instantaneously. Somehow he knew that those deaths were deaths he had to prevent but the vision had been lacking a few crucial details like when exactly it was going to take place. It had been a snapshot of future events but that was all without the exact context of when it was only where it was – the derelict apartments currently undergoing refurbishment after being left derelict when the company that owned them went bankrupt, the building's basement had subsequently become a vampire nest that Buffy had cleared out months ago just before the work on the buildings got under way.

Whenever it happened he silently promised himself that he would be ready for it, in fact he would make it a point to check the third floor apartments before going on shift today – just to be on the safe side as surely there would be some sign of rotten floorboards on the level above that would have explained the collapse he'd witnessed. Steve and Miguel wouldn't die such a needless and pointless death.

Not while he was around to prevent it.

* * *

**Giles Apartment**

**A Few Minutes Earlier**

Rupert Giles wrinkled his nose in disgust at the smell coming off the only carton of milk that he was holding. _Oh this is just brilliant,_ he thought grimacing before pouring the fouled milk down the sink and washing it away. He wouldn't be able to start his morning with a cup of tea as he normally would instead he would nip out to the local shop and pick up a fresh carton or two of milk first. Either that or go by the Espresso Pump and have a cup of coffee which would do if he was really desperate for his morning caffeine fix as the tea that was served there didn't really deserve the name. But then again in his experience Americans wouldn't know a decent cup of tea if it walked up and punched them on the nose. Damned colonials.

Sighing in annoyance, and muttering a few minor obscenities under his breath, he threw the now empty carton in the bin all the while mentally kicking himself for forgetting to put it away last night. After the other Scoobies had left he'd spent the next few hours having a long discussion with Paige as he'd sought to learn not just more about the young woman who'd so unexpectedly appeared last night but to learn more about Xander the younger mans' true history and nature as a witch-whitelighter hybrid as as far as he was aware such beings existing was supposed to be impossible given the Elders forbade witches and whitelighters from having relationships. Though the existence of Paige and Xander confirmed it did still happen from time to time.

The discussion had been extremely interesting, very informative and in some ways cause for great concern. He had been surprised to learn that despite being only in her early to mid-twenties Paige was a very accomplished and powerful witch, well versed in some very advanced forms of Wicca magic. It had also been very surprising to learn that she was in the future one of the Charmed Ones having replaced the eldest Prue Halliwell after she was killed by an extremely powerful demonic hit man called Shax. He hadn't even been aware that the Charmed Ones were active though he of course knew about Melinda Warren's prophecy – any Watcher worth his or her salt did. Paige being a half-sister to the Halliwell's – and Xander by extension being a half-brother - had been more than a little surprising though it did explain why she was so powerful and how powerful Xander would be once he learned how to properly use the powers that were his birth right now that the binding placed on him by the Source himself had been removed.

Thinking about it he had to admit to being worried for Xander. He had to admit that he had become very close to the younger man over the last few years and come to regard him almost as the son that he'd never had. A surrogate son who'd just had not one bombshell but a whole barrage of them dropped on him. To learn that his entire life had been manipulated and directed by the Source of All Evil himself with the goal of luring him – and the powers within him, powers he hadn't even known about due to said Source – into darkness was undoubtedly going to be a very hard burden for Xander to bare. A burden he was worried that Xander might not be able to cope with especially given the Source had been directly or indirectly behind so much of the bad things that had happened in Xander's life from living with alcoholic parents to the death of Jesse and now was behind his 'relationship' with Anyanka or Anya Jenkins as she called herself now as she pretended to by human so she could infiltrate the group and spy on them for the Source. He made a mental note to have a private chat with Xander later, see how the young man was coping with the revelations and offering whatever comfort and support he could if he were to need it.

The sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention and brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up in time to see Paige appear surprisingly already dressed ready to begin her first full day on the Hellmouth. "Good morning Paige," he said in greeting.

"Morning Giles," Paige replied with a smile. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm fine aside from not having had a cup of tea yet this morning," he replied, "the milks gone off so unless you want a black coffee there won't be any hot drinks until after I've nipped out to the local shop to get a new carton."

"I'll wait thanks," Paige replied inwardly shuddering at the thought of black coffee. While she would drink it in a pinch she didn't worship black coffee in the way that Phoebe did.

"Alright, I'll go and dress a minute then nip to the shop."

Paige nodded and watched at the technically ex-Watcher disappeared into his bedroom to get out of night clothes and into normal clothing. She had enjoyed her conversation with him the night before and found him very knowledgeable about a variety of magical and demonic subjects. Though he had been understandably more interested in learning more about the situation that had led to her travelling back in time to this place, how she'd found out about Xander being her brother and what the Source might actually want with him. It was perfectly clear to her that Giles cared a great deal about her brother and she found that very gratifying to see.

Despite his focus on Xander Giles had been perfectly willing to tell her more about the Slayer as she hadn't really had chance to read about her in the Book of Shadows before casting the time travel spell as well as telling her more about the Watchers Council. The Slayer was something of a sad story one filled with violence, pain and sacrifice all thrust upon the shoulders of a teenage girl. A girl that generally didn't survive long going up against the vampires and demons it had been very sobering to her to learn that the nineteen year old Buffy was one of the longest living Slayers for nearly a hundred years having survived being on the front line against the darkness for five years and that she was only alive now due to the help of her friends but especially Xander who'd literally pulled her back from death three years ago using CPR an action that had caused the Slayer line to fission.

The Watchers Council was another cause for concern to her as while it was nice to hear there were other organisations in the world who battled against the forces of evil the Watchers seemed to have lost their way somewhat. From what Giles had told her the Watchers Council had originally been set up to find potential Slayers through use of a complex spell, prepare them to be called as a Slayer and when Called support them with weapons and knowledge of the different demonic races they might encounter in the performance of their duties. But over time it had become less and less concerned about the Slayer as a person seeing her more as a weapon to be wielded and then discarded when she was no longer useful and not a potentially very vulnerable teenage girl thrust sometimes without warning – in the case of Buffy and the other currently comatose Slayer Faith – into a life or death struggle against evil. Indeed many of its procedures and traditions with regards to the Slayer struck her as dangerous and short sighted, some were downright cruel and dangerous. From what Giles had told her it was one such test – something called the cruciamentum – that had led to him being fired from the Council when he'd disobeyed orders to carry it out prompting the head of the Council a Quentin Travers to come and perform the test himself.

She couldn't help but grimace at the cruciamentum test. To strip a Slayer of her powers without any warning and then pitting her against a master vampire and seeing if she survived all to prove her worth to the Council struck her as barbaric, cruel and totally needless. Why the Council felt it was necessary she didn't know and she was just glad that the Elders didn't have a similar test.

Giles return brought her out of her thoughts. "I'll head out now Paige," he said, "it should only take me about twenty minutes to get to the shop and back."

"Alright Giles I'll make sure the kettle is full for when you come back," Paige replied. Giles smiled warmly before picking up his car keys from a side table and leaving the apartment.

Paige watched him go before heading into the kitchen area and filling the kettle. She was just putting it back on the base that provided the device with power when her mystical sense tingled. A moment before a swarm of blue-white orbs came through the ceiling and rapidly coalesced into a tall male whitelighter who looked to be around the same age as Piper. There was something about him, something familiar though she was sure that she had never seen him before as aside from Leo the only other whitelighters she'd ever met had been Chris and Sam.

"Paige Matthews," the whitelighter asked.

"Yes," Paige confirmed approaching the whitelighter curiously wondering why he was here apparently looking for her. She hoped that he wasn't here to take her to the Elders so they could send her back to her own time, she couldn't leave Alexander not yet, not when he had no idea how to use his powers or even what those powers were as she didn't doubt there would be some unique twists in comparison to her own and those she knew baby Wyatt possessed or would possess when he came into the world in a few years' time. "Who are you?"

"Andrew Trudeau though you can call me Andy everyone does," the whitelighter replied offering his hand prompting Paige's eyes to widen as they shook hands. She recognised the name as her sisters had told her about Andrew Trudeau, how he'd been a lifelong friend of theirs and the love of Prue's life and how he'd laid down his life in an attempt to protect them from attack by a powerful demonic assassin called Rodriquez. "I see you've heard of me."

Paige nodded. "My sisters have mentioned you before but they didn't know that you'd been made a whitelighter. Leo never told them."

"That's because he was specifically ordered not to by the Elders. Your sisters needed closure, they needed to move on from my death something that Prue especially would not have been able to do if she'd known I'd been made a whitelighter," Andy explained feeling a familiar twinge of pain in his heart when he thought about Prue. Though it had been eight months since his death he still missed her terribly and it had only been through a tremendous effort of self-control that he hadn't orbed down to see her as soon as he'd learned how to orb.

"I get you. So what brings you here to the Hellmouth?"

Andy smirked slightly. "You Paige," he replied giving her a look that said the answer should have been obvious. "The Elders know that you've travelled back in time and why you did it."

"Are they going to send me back," Paige asked worriedly hoping they weren't not that she could do anything to stop the Elders if they were intent on sending her back to her own time right now.

"No," Andy answered smiling as he saw the young woman's shoulders drop in relief. "No they fully understand and support why you came back in time. No they've sent me here to help you with training your brother in how to use his heritage. You're presence here and the fact that you've also unbound Alexander's powers has given the Elders an opportunity to interfere with some of the events here on the Hellmouth something that the Powers That Be have worked very hard to prevent in the last few years."

"Why," Paige asked hearing a faint note of distaste in Andy's voice as he mentioned the Powers That Be which echoed the derision she'd heard in Leo's voice when he'd briefly mentioned them when Sam had been telling her and her sisters about Xander's existence.

"Though they are technically supposed to be on the same side the Elders and the Powers That Be don't exactly see eye to eye on a number of issues, especially as the Powers are obsessed with a concept that is fundamentally unworkable and impossible to truly maintain."

"Which is?"

"Balance. The Powers believe in creating and enforcing a balance between the forces of good and evil, they're the ultimate proponents of the status quo refusing to understand or comprehend that evil will always try to destroy good and vice versa," Andy explained, "the Powers are also masters at manipulation and frequently draft individuals and groups into their often overly complex, convoluted plans all for the sake of serving and furthering the balance. All without concern for the wellbeing or free will of the individuals concerned, they also do not care for the damage their plans can inflict upon innocent bystanders. In the eyes of the Powers any injuries or deaths caused to innocents are merely acceptable losses as long as the balance is served."

"I can see why the Elders would have a problem with that," Paige replied frowning knowing from experience just how committed the Elders were to protecting innocents almost at the expense of everything else. Indeed from what Phoebe had told her the reason why the Elders had been dead set against the marriage of Piper and Leo at first had had as much to with concerns that they might become too distracted by their passions to protect innocent lives as it had concerns over the creation of a witch-whitelighter hybrid.

After a few moments thought she spoke again. "Well I'll take any help I can get in teaching Xander how to use his abilities," seeing the confused expression on Andy's face at the name she explained, "Alexander apparently doesn't like being called by his full name preferring to be called Xander."

"I see," Andy replied nodding understandingly recalling how Prue always preferred to not be called by her full first name of Prudence, even before she'd come into her powers as a witch anyone – other than Grams who'd called her that when she did something wrong – calling her that could really look out as while Prue was normally a very calm and controlled person she could at times have a beast of a temper. Hurricane Prue she'd been called more than once back in High School, especially when one of the jocks pushed her too far. "Xander it is then."

Paige grinned back getting the distinct impression that she was really going to like Andy. "I don't know him very well yet naturally but I think he's going to like you," she answered. "And I admit it would be nice to have a whitelighter again. Are you here for anyone other than the two of us?"

"Yes I'm here for Ms Rosenberg as well."

Paige blinked recalling the bouncy redhead she'd met last night, the one who'd looked like she'd been about to unleash a barrage of questions about her magic before the revelations about Xander had distracted her. "Willow," she repeated confused, "why would Willow need a whitelighter? Is she a future whitelighter?"

"No she's not a future whitelighter. Willow is a witch specifically she's a witch practitioner a very gifted one."

Paige's eyes widened. "Willow's a witch?" she repeated in shock gaining herself a nod from Andy. "Then why doesn't she have a whitelighter already? Is it because of the Hellmouth?"

"She doesn't because she's a practitioner," Andy explained, "Practitioner witches like Willow are normal mortals who through a unique genetic quirk have the potential – but only potential – to learn and wield magic. They are not naturally born to magic in the way you, your sisters and your brother were and thus do not normally fall under the authority of the Elders so they're not automatically assigned a whitelighter to watch over them in the way Leo was assigned to watch over your sisters from the moment they were born."

"If they don't get whitelighters then who teaches them," Paige asked confused and concerned as knowing that magic wasn't something you could really teach yourself from a home help book. If you tried then it could very easily lead you to disaster.

"If a practitioner discovers they have the ability to use magic then the Powers That Be are supposed to provide instruction in the ways of magic, the rules and when and when not to use it. But they have not done so."

"Why?"

"The Elders aren't sure but knowing the Powers they have a plan for her, a plan that requires that Willow be kept ignorant of the true rules and ways of magic. As practitioners go Willow is extremely powerful and is already stronger in magic after just over a year of practice than most practitioners get in their entire lifetime."

"And that's unusual?"

"Very. Her strength in magic has led the Elders to investigate her magical aura further which has led to the Council discovering something truly extraordinary and which hasn't happened for centuries. Willow is not a normal practitioner but is a practitioner-progenitor witch which means she is the first witch in an entirely new magical bloodline as all current magic bloodlines began with exceptionally strong practitioners like Willow, your own ancestor Melinda Warren was one such practitioner-progenitor. Any children Willow has will be born witches and thus automatically under the purview of the Elders not the Powers."

"Do you think the Powers know that?"

"It would be perfectly obvious even to the weakest of them. Though that does not explain why the Powers have deliberately kept Willow ignorant of the ways of magic and why they did not immediately inform the Elders of her existence as they are supposed to do whenever a practitioner shows signs of being a progenitor. Whatever their reasons they no longer matter as she is a practitioner-progenitor Willow now falls under the purview of the Elders and thus it falls to me to take steps to help Willow learn the proper ways of magic as well as how to create her own Book of Shadows."

"How can I help?" Paige asked and saw Andy blink in surprise at her office. "Come on Andy you've just told me that Willow is a modern version of my great, great, great, great something grandmother. You can't not expect me to help teach her I am half-whitelighter after all and a Warren witch to boot." Andy smirked. "What?"

"Nothing you just remind me of Prue," Andy replied smiling. "If she was here now and I told her what I've just told you about Willow she would have said the same thing you did." _After she was done telekinetically throwing me through a wall or two for dying on her and then not informing her of my rebirth as a whitelighter,_ he thought inwardly cringing at the knowledge that if she'd been standing here now he would have really been in for an encounter with Hurricane Prue.

"Then you know that nothing you say will stop me helping you teach Willow the proper way to use magic." A faint smile appeared on her lips. "We can teach both her and Xander about magic at the same time as from what I was told in the future and what I've seen here she and my brother are very close."

"Good idea. Though there is one thing we will have to be on our guard for with Willow, something that like all practitioners she is very vulnerable to and that is it's very easy for a practitioner witch to become addicted to magic. It can happen to any witch but it's a lot easier for a practitioner to fall into the trap of addiction."

Paige winced. She'd read a little bit about magic addiction in the Book of Shadows and knew it was very easy for a witch to slip into without even realising they were doing it. What could seem like harmless uses of magic as a shortcut to accomplish something could rapidly spiral into using magic for everything even when there was no need to. When that happened to a witch they became more vulnerable to corruptive influences and could fall into darkness becoming at best an evil sorcerer/sorceress and at worst lose their soul and become a full blown warlock.

"We'll be on our guard," she agreed before stiffening as she abruptly sensed something was wrong with her twin. Frowning she sensed through the bond that Xander was suddenly very disturbed and concerned by something. "Something's wrong with Xander."

"I know I can feel it too," Andy replied frowning as he sensed the emotional turmoil his charge was in in the way all whitelighters had. "Something has really upset him. We should orb over there."

"Agreed just let me leave a message for Giles letting him know where I've gone," Paige agreed.

"The Watcher to the current Slayer?"

"The same," Paige agreed as she walked up to Giles desk and hunted in the drawers for a moment for a pen and a piece of paper. "This is his apartment, he's letting me stay here for a day or two until I can find a hotel or something to stay at on a more permanent basis."

Andy nodded in understanding and made a mental note to speak with the Elders and see if there was something they could do to help in that regard. They were after all not entirely without resources on Earth and could call on the rest of the magical community for help with earthly matters if the need arose. While he waited for Paige to finish her note to Giles he closed his eyes and mentally focused on Xander Harris and noticed that the young man was still deeply disturbed by something but was on his own in his dwelling, though he did sense a vampire sleeping in the basement. _What's a vampire doing there,_ he wondered a moment before someone shaking his arm caught his attention. He opened his eyes to see Paige eying him in concern.

"I'm alright I was just checking on your brother," he explained, "He's alone well aside from a vampire."

"Spike's the vampire's name," Paige informed him.

"What!" Andy squeaked in shock and horror as his training had covered the four vampires who'd been collectively referred to for more than a hundred years as the Scourge of Europe, Spike or William the Bloody was one of them.

"You know him?"

"Heard of him. Spike is one of the members of a band of vampires of the Aurelius bloodline that were collectively known as the Scourge of Europe after the bloody trail they left through dozens of countries in the nineteenth century until the group broke up when the main ringleader Angelus was tagged with a soul restoration curse by the Kalderesh gypsies after he fed on one of their princesses."

"Ouch nasty," Paige said with a wince. "But you need not worry about Spike right now he's not a threat. Apparently he was briefly captured by some government project who implanted a chip in his brain that somehow stops him feeding off or hurting humans. Because of that chip the Slayer hasn't yet vanquished him."

"I see," Andy replied frowning and making another mental note to speak to the Elders. Governments getting involved with the supernatural was never a good thing, his training had covered some of the horrors that could result from such meddling with supernatural forces. "I'll have to speak with the Elders about that as governments meddling with the supernatural and magical worlds is never a good thing. But first let's go and see what's upset your brother so much."

"Yes lets," Paige agreed before focusing on her brother and orbing out.

"Well as I always say ladies first," Andy said to the empty air where Paige had once been before orbing out himself.

* * *

**Harris Residence**

**That Same Time**

Xander was deep in thought as he prepared his normal breakfast of cornflakes more by autopilot than conscious thought. His mind almost completely occupied with the vision of disaster he'd had and thinking how he was going to prevent the deaths of Steve and Miguel in said disaster. So far he could think of no way of preventing it other than simply checking the apartment above where they working for any sign of rotten floorboards and joists – anything that would explain why a section of the floor would suddenly collapse into the level below.

An ethereal tinkling sound behind him made him whirl around in time to see a swarm of orbs of blue-white light appear and coalesce into Paige. A moment later a second swarm of orbs appeared and coalesced into a tall man a few years older than her. "Hi Paige," he said in greeting, "you must have radar or something as I was going to call you soon."

"Morning Xander," Paige replied smiling. "I can guess why you were going to call me, something is bother you isn't it."

"Yeah something happened this morning, something really wiggy."

"Wiggy?"

"Strange sorry guess I've hung around Buffy a bit too long she has the strangest language at times," Xander explained apologetically before eying the strange man standing next to Paige. "So who's your friend?"

"This is Andy," Paige answered with a smile. "Xander meet Andy, Andy meet Xander."

"Pleasure," Andy said warmly holding out his hand. Xander took it and was about to shake the hand when once again images burst into his awareness like a flood.

* * *

_Andy raced up the steps to the front door of the Halliwell Manor his backup service pistol held in one hand as he pursued Rodriguez into the home of his technically ex-girlfriend and her sisters. He was right Rodriguez was a demon – nothing human had pure red eyes like the ones Rodriguez had just directed at the sisters Siamese cat Kit – a demon who was clearly after Prue and her sisters. He couldn't allow that and despite the fact that Prue had wanted him to stay away he couldn't let them face Rodriguez alone even with the Power of Three – whatever that meant as this magic thing was still too weird to really think about too much – to back them up._

_The sound of some kind of energy discharge in the house made him run faster and burst through the front doors, to see Prue unconscious on the floor with Phoebe and Piper facing off against Rodriguez who was holding a ball of what looked like electricity. A ball he was clearly getting ready to throw at them._

"_NOO," he yelled prompting the startled demonic cop to whirl towards him, the energy ball evaporating. Without hesitation he fired several rounds into Rodriguez's shoulder intending to incapacitate rather than kill him. Rodriguez rocked back with the impacts, flinching but amazingly not going down when those shots should have had him writhing in agony on the floor._

_Rodriguez smirked evilly as he steadied himself before hurling a bolt of the blue energy right at him. There was no time to evade and the blast took him right in the torso, pain exploded in his chest and he screaming in agony as he felt himself flying through the air. He faintly heard Piper shouting his name her voice thick with horror and rage even as he crashed into a display cabinet which shattered into kindling with the force of impact before slumping to the floor. His chest was a sea of agony that spread through his body in pulsing waves. He was dying he knew he was._

_I'm sorry Prue,__he thought before darkness enveloped him and he knew no more._

* * *

Xander gasped and pulled sharply away from Andy as if burnt, shaking with the reaction to another vision, this one felt like it came from the past.

"What did you see," Paige asked her brother urgently recognising all the signs of someone who'd just been hit by a very powerful vision or premonition. _Guess that answers the question of what his active witch power is,_ she thought, _it's the same as Phoebe's._

"How did you…" Xander started to say.

"…know that you saw something," Paige finished for him with a soft smile before explaining. "The youngest of our older sisters Phoebe has the same power of visions or premonitions that you seem to have. You'll learn to cope with them in time."

"Can't I turn them off," Xander asked. "This is the second one I've had today though this one felt I don't know different, like I was looking at something from the past."

"Afraid not they're part of you," Paige replied frowning slightly and exchanging a look with Andy as Phoebe's visions were always of future events and things they had to prevent and not flashes of past events as well as future ones. "Tell me what did you see?"

Xander swallowed slightly then looked slightly nervously at Andy. "I saw Andy. He was trying to fire at a demon but the bullets did nothing and the demon…"

"Threw an energy ball at me a relatively low intensity one as energy balls go but still quite lethal," Andy finished shivering as he remembered the pain of that blast striking him. He'd been injured in the past in the line of duty as a police officer but nothing had been like that pain as the energy slowly killed him. "You saw my mortal death eight months ago."

"Yeah yet here you are now," Xander replied, "how are you here now then are you some kind of magically powered zombie?"

Andy laughed. "No I'm not a zombie," he answered smiling, "I'm a whitelighter an angel of sorts just like yours and Paige biological father Sam Wilder was."

"Andy's been assigned to help us by the Elders," Paige added, "they're a group of high level whitelighters who look after and guide born witches like us."

"If whitelighters help witches then shouldn't Willow have one," Xander asked, "I mean she's become quite a powerful witch over the last few years."

"Willow doesn't have a whitelighter because unlike you and Paige she was not born to magic and has no instinctive ability to use facets of it," Andy explained, "she is what's termed a practitioner witch which is a normal human who through a unique genetic quirk has the potential to learn Wicca magic but only potential. Most humans with the genetic quirk never learn they have the ability."

"But Willow has."

"Yes and that's why Andy has been charged with giving Willow the instruction in the proper ways of using our kind of magic. Instruction that Willow has been lacking until now. Apparently the Powers That Be are supposed to provide instruction in magic to practitioner witches if they discover their potential powers but they've not done so in Willow's case."

"For a very good reason," a new voice answered prompting all three to whirl around to face a man who looked like he'd stepped right out of the seventies, a man Xander recognised from previous encounters with him.

"Who are you," Paige demanded frowning at the stranger.

"His names Whistler," Xander replied, "he's a balance demon who works for the Powers That Be. We've encountered him a few times before sometimes he's helpful other times infuriatingly vague and cryptic. So what are you doing here Whistler?"

Whistler ignored Xander instead walking right up to the whitelighter and glaring with the anger his bosses felt at his appearance here. They'd tolerated the appearance of the witch but the appearance of a whitelighter on the Hellmouth was too much, especially if he was indeed here for Willow. "You are not wanted here," he said in a hostile tone of voice. "As a practitioner Ms Rosenberg is not the Elders responsibility but ours."

"A responsibility that your superiors have abdicated," Andy replied calmly, "you've provided none of the support and guidance to Willow that you are supposed to provide to practitioner witches instead you've made sure she stumbles around in the dark with little real idea of the responsibilities and dangers that come with the gift. In addition your superiors have broken the covenant with the Elders you know as well as I that Willow is not just a practitioner but is practitioner-progenitor and you have not told them again as you were supposed to."

"As I said there is a good reason for that, Willow has a role to play, a role she must play."

"Wait what do you mean Willow's a practitioner-progenitor," Xander broke in.

"It means that she's the first witch in an entirely new magical bloodline," Paige explained as the balance demon continued glaring at the whitelighter ignoring the question. "Any children she has will be born with innate magical powers and the ability to use more advanced forms of Wicca magic."

Andy shook his head at the balance demon even as he listened to Paige explain what a practitioner-progenitor was to her brother. "You mean those pricks that are your bosses are – again – risking corrupting an entire magical bloodline for their own ends," he answered Whistler sighing, "haven't they learned their lesson yet? How many warlock bloodlines have they created by doing what they are doing now?"

Whistler winced and grimaced knowing the answer was far too many. "It has to be done things have to be this way," he repeated keeping to the company line set by the Powers even though he personally disagreed with it. "Willow has to play the role she is meant to play."

"What do you mean by that Whistler," Xander demanded concerned for his oldest surviving friend and what Whistler could mean about her having a role to play.

"He means that the Powers plan to keep your friend ignorant of the true ways of magic," Andy explained, "they're going to let her continue to learn without any of the support or guidance that they were supposed to provide. Probably hoping she will become addicted to magic and possibly be driven temporarily or permanently insane by powers she's not yet ready to wield which would lead to her falling possibly permanently into darkness all to serve there nebulous and ridiculous balance."

Xander scowled. "To hell with that," he said shivering at the thought of Willow possibly becoming twisted and as evil. He knew he wouldn't be able to bear that happening to his friend as it would mean he could lose her and if that happened he didn't know what he'd do. Jesse's death and transformation into a vampire four years ago had come within a hairs breath of destroying him he wouldn't be able to cope with loosing Willow as well. He felt a hand come on his shoulder and he just knew that it belonged to Paige sensing his sudden anxiety through their twin bond.

"The Elders agree with you on that one Xander," Andy said reassuringly. "That is why I will be offering her the instruction in magic that has been neglected for far too long."

"Please don't do this you have no idea what you're doing," Whistler said pleadingly though he knew it would do little good if the Elders were dead set on this course of action, something the Powers had long feared might happen. It was why they'd worked so hard to keep whitelighters away from the Hellmouth.

"I trust that despite what you believe demon the Elders know full well what they are doing," Andy replied, "Willow is no longer the responsibility of the Powers That Be, she is mine and theirs now."

Whistler was silent for a moment. "So be it. I will inform the Powers," he said with a sigh knowing the Powers were not going to be at all pleased by this development and yet another of their plans being metaphorically thrown out the window. "But I warn you whitelighter there will be consequences for this action."

"Noted," Andy replied not really concerned about the threat. The Powers That Be liked to talk in grandiose terms, liked to think of themselves as all powerful having long since bought into their own hype, but there wasn't really much they could do against the Elders beyond whine and complain like spoilt children being denied the right to play with a toy.

Whistler scowled before deciding there was no point in sticking around as there was nothing more to be said or discussed. Without fanfare he vanished into the ether to inform the Powers That Be of the outcome of the conversation with the whitelighter. He wasn't looking forward to it as he knew the Powers would not be pleased and he feared what they would do in response. They couldn't metaphorically cross swords with the Elders directly as the Elders were higher ranked in the celestial hierarchy than the Powers were, challenging them would be a futile battle. There was nothing they could do directly and that would irk the Powers something rotten.

Oh boy would it irk them.

* * *

Authors Notes: Well here ends chapter four and the longest chapter of Birthright to date. I was originally going to add another scene on the end between Andy, Paige and Xander where they discuss his vision but in the end decided not to as I felt that would be too much like repeating myself just for the sake of it as you my readers already know what the vision was. I hope everyone likes what Xander's witch power is – I will say now that it is not exactly like Phoebe's in that it has a more psionic aspect to it. Also like Phoebe Xander will have a second more active witch power – like Phoebe's levitation and empathic abilities – though I am going to keep what exactly that is under wraps for now.

I hope the whole difference between born and practitioner witches and Willow being a practitioner-progenitor witch didn't come across as too complicated and convoluted. If it has tell me and I will see about clarifying it somewhat in upcoming chapters. Also rest assured that the Powers That Be are not going to take the Elders interference through Andy lying down and will do something to try and get their plans back on track. Whether they succeed or not and what exactly they do you will have to wait and see.

Until next time.


End file.
